Destiny Delayed
by Mrs.InsaneOne
Summary: When Harry faces the newly reborn Voldemort in the graveyard, something goes wrong the instant their spells connect and both of them are transported to another world where witches and wizards don't exist. It's a world filled with advanced technology and sciences; a world where super heroes had been created through science, technology, accidents, and human evolution.
1. Prologue: Magic Unleashed

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write involving other people's words and characters but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Summary:** _When Harry faces the newly reborn Voldemort in the graveyard, something goes wrong the instant that their spells connect and both man and boy are transported to another world where witches and wizards don't exist. It is a world filled with advanced technology and sciences; a world where super heroes had been created through science, technology, accidents, and human evolution. _

**Warnings:** _Mild to Moderate Violence, Language, vague references to Adult Context, Alternate Universe (i.e.: kiss canon goodbye), and who knows what else._

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Prologue: Magic Unleashed

_Saturday, June 10, 1995  
Little Hangleton Graveyard, Little Hangleton  
England_

As a fourteen year old Harry Potter ducked down behind a large headstone, his thoughts flashed through the memories of his life as the knowledge that he was going to die hit him hard.

His childhood had been less of an actual childhood and more along the lines of indentured servitude to his relatives; his aunt and uncle had put him to work cooking, cleaning, and gardening around the house from the moment he could walk and follow directions. On top of that, there was the verbal and emotional abuse, the emotional and physical neglect, and the endless bullying he'd suffered at their hands. And he couldn't count the number of lies they'd spread about him to the rest of the town; turning him into some sort of juvenile delinquent in the eyes of the entire neighborhood.

He'd thought all of that would change on his eleventh birthday when he'd learned the truth about what he was and how his parents had really died.

He had been filled with wonder and hope when he'd first discovered that he was a wizard and then he'd learned that he was famous because Lord Voldemort had failed to kill him the night the madman murdered his parents. He also quickly learned that the wizarding society was far more prejudiced than the non-magical world. From the moment he'd stepped foot in the castle he'd been scrutinized by the other children, worshipped for something he had had no control over, and reviled by the entire school at the drop of a hat for things usually out of his control.

Part of him was unsure how he'd managed to make two friends during all of the madness.

If only said madness hadn't slowly been chipping away at his sanity at the same time; undead dark lords, possessed professors, dangerous creatures, soul sucking demons, escaped criminals, deadly tournaments, ugly scandals, malicious rumors, and his life on the line dozens of times over were just some of things he'd face through the years.

All he'd ever wanted was a place to call home and he'd thought he'd found it at Hogwarts but after this past year, which was by far the worst year in his mind, he feared that he'd been wrong. The moment that his name had been spat out of the Goblet of Fire, the life he'd built for himself had crumbled around him like a sand castle in the tide. His best friend branded him a liar, the entire school called him a cheater, the wizarding society ate up the cruel lies that Rita Skeeter had written about him, and the school's staff had once again done nothing. Unless he counted the fact that Snape had reveled in his misery and encouraged the rampant bullying.

The Tournament hadn't been a picnic either what with fire breathing dragons, under water mishaps, and a maze full of vicious creatures and spell traps. Then the culmination of an entire year of disasters; the Tournament Trophy turned portkey that had brought him and Cedric Diggory to the graveyard and ultimately into the hands of Peter Pettigrew and the Dark Lord. Harry's heart ached as he saw again Cedric's instantaneous death as the older teen was washed in the green light of the Killing Curse. Worse yet was watching Pettigrew perform the ritual that had given Voldemort a new body. That was on top of being an unwilling participant in said ritual.

And now, here he was, cowering behind a crumbling headstone as the Dark Lord hunted him like a snake hunts a mouse through the long grass. Unshed tears burned the back of Harry's eyes as the knowledge that he was going to die seared itself more firmly into his mind. Did he want to die? Hell no, but Voldemort had fifty years experience and twenty-nine sycophants on hand while he was only fourteen years old and he was alone. No, he was going to die; it was just a matter of time now.

The knowledge that Voldemort would find his hiding place any second now filled Harry with both dread and resignation. Resolve rushed through Harry an instant later as he decided that he would bravely face his death head on and on his feet instead of cowering like a sniveling coward. He tightened his grip on his faithful holly wand and sent a silent prayer to the gods of old for strength (surely one of them would hear his plea, right?) before he stood up and nearly fell right back to the ground when his injured leg started to buckle on him. He quickly shifted his weight to his right leg as he turned to face Voldemort for the first time since the Dark Lord had started their farce of a duel.

"_Avada Kedavra_," Voldemort cried out in his high, cold voice as he lifted his wand once more and at the same exact instant, Harry brought his wand up to bear as he desperately screamed, "_Expelliarmus_."

The acid green light of the Killing Curse slammed into the red light of the Disarming Charm a heartbeat later and Harry felt a powerful current of electricity shoot up through his arm and straight to his heart. It felt worse than every single one of the Cruciatus Curses that Voldemort had hit him with since the newly reborn Dark Lord had risen out of the cauldron.

The fourteen year old flinched back and closed his eyes as the pain coursed through his entire body until it reached his forehead where it seemed to gather beneath his scar. A heartbeat later, his scar ripped open to bleed black sludge down his face while more of the foul substance spread out underneath his skin like a bruise. Harry would have screamed in pain if not for the electrical current of magic still coursing through him locking his jaw shut.

Despite the continued pain, Harry stubbornly pried his eyes open to find the spell from his wand still connected to the spell from Voldemort's wand; the magic pouring forth from both of their wands now gold in color instead of the red and green of their original spells. Harry panted through clenched teeth as he stared at glowing thread of magic connecting him to the Dark Lord and he tried not to panic as he felt his feet lift off of the ground.

Across from him, Harry could just make out Voldemort's face twisting in alarm as the Dark Lord was pulled from the ground along with him. They were roughly twenty feet up off the ground when the golden beam locking their wands together split apart to form a golden cage of beams around them as the air was filled with the song of a phoenix.

"Don't just stand there you imbeciles! Kill him! Kill him now!" Voldemort ordered angrily after he'd attempted and failed to break the connection that bound their wands and magic together.

Eleven acid green Killing Curses, ten burnt orange Cutting Curses, and eight searing red Blasting Curses converged on Harry the moment the Dark Lord finished giving his order and the teen had to force himself to keep his eyes open in the face of certain death. All twenty-nine spells slammed into the golden dome at the same instant and the electricity still coursing through his body turned to liquid fire a split second later as the world outside of the golden cage exploded in a flash of colors.

A scream tore its way free from Harry's throat as his wand caught fire in his hand. An answering scream rose from the Dark Lord at the same time and Harry could just barely make out the flames that were consuming Voldemort's wand. The flames from both wands then rushed along the golden thread of magic that connected the two wizards and when they reached the center, another explosion rocked the night as the connection snapped. Harry soared backwards through the air until he hit the ground hard and rolled several times before he slammed into a large oak tree he didn't recall seeing in the graveyard earlier.

As he pushed himself up off the ground and sat back against the tree, Harry felt sure that something inside of him had been broken because of how much it hurt to breathe. It didn't help that his nerves were still on fire from whatever it was that had happened between his wand and Voldemort's wand and all of the injuries he'd garnered over the course of the evening since he'd first entered the maze throbbed with agony. Despite the pain he was in and the amount of blood he knew he was losing, Harry was far more concerned with the fact that his wand had been turned to ash by whatever it was that had just happened.

"It is time to end this," a bruised and bloodied Voldemort rasped as he staggered up to where Harry was still propped up against the tree. "That fancy trick of yours may have robbed me of my wand but that will not stop me from killing you. I am Lord Voldemort; the most powerful wizard in the entire world…"

"Puny wizard," a gravely voice growled out as a huge green fist slammed down onto the Dark Lord; crushing the newly reborn Voldemort instantly.

Harry watched a dark cloud rise out of the remains of Voldemort's constructed body and found himself remembering a similar cloud rising out of the smoking remains of Quirrell's body at the end of his first year; though he couldn't quite grasp the significance of that cloud at the moment. He then turned his eyes up to stare at his savior. His first impression was green and Harry closed his eyes for a moment thinking that maybe he was just seeing things. When he reopened his eyes once more, his second impression was green and huge. Harry let out a choked laugh that was more than half sob at that point as his brain put together both impressions to form the image of a large mountain troll on steroids.

A large green hand reached out to lift Harry off the ground at that point and Harry felt his body explode with pain once more despite the somewhat contradictory gentleness the giant troll used to collect his battered body. The last thing he saw just before he passed out was a pair of large green eyes watching him with open concern and curiosity that barely concealed the rage that lurked in their green depths.

* * *

_Saturday, March 21, 2015  
French Alps, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur  
France_

Brown eyes slowly cracked open to peer up at the green canopy of ice laden evergreen boughs that framed the morning sunrise. A soft groan echoed through the near empty forest two minutes later as Dr. Bruce Banner sat up to cradle his aching head in his hands while he did his best to ignore the frigid air. Bruce then let out a sigh that was half frustration and half weary resignation as his eyes caught sight of his near nakedness and immediately realized that the Other Guy had made another appearance. He spent a moment trying to think back to what had set him off before he gave up trying to think because of the headache that was trying to split his head in half.

He spent several minutes meditating in order to ease the pounding in his head before he lifted his head once more to figure out where he'd ended up this time. He'd barely turned his head to the left before he froze as his eyes landed on a small form that was haphazardly sprawled out on a patch of old snow not more than five feet away from him. Bruce closed his eyes for a brief moment and silently ran through a litany of verbal curses before he reopened his eyes and gingerly crawled over to the only other person he could see in the area. As soon as he was close enough to properly make out the form, Bruce discovered two things that chilled his soul; one, the form was that of a child and two, the child had been critically injured.

Swallowing his self disgust, Bruce carefully sought out the child's wrist and checked for a pulse. He felt his anxiety drop marginally the moment he felt a weak heartbeat pulsing against his fingers; the Other Guy hadn't killed the kid. Bruce took a deep breath before he began checking the kid's body for injuries. His eyes catalogued the boy's current condition with practiced ease; noting the boy's ruined clothes (the clothes burnt and torn with the right sleeve of the trench coat the kid was wearing missing completely), the fresh and dried blood on the boy's clothes and the snow beneath him, and the barely seen rise and fall of the boy's chest.

Bruce pressed his lips together as he quickly determined that the kid needed urgent medical care that he was not going to be able to provide him out in the middle of no where.

Grim determination filled the scientist as he reached into the special pocket that had been sewn into the tacky purple stretchy pants that Tony Stark had created for him to wear (to protect his modesty after a change) to grab the vibranium alloy case that Tony had made for him to store his emergency supplies in. The bulky case was fourteen inches long, three inches wide, and two inches deep and rather awkward to carry but it was well worth the discomfort to have the supplies it held on-hand when he inevitably woke up in the middle of nowhere half naked.

Opening the case, Bruce pulled out the spare shirt and spare set of glasses he kept in the small case and left the rest of the items in place as he slipped on the glasses. He then began ripping the shirt into bandages so that he could stop the kid's bleeding. Once he had the bandages ready, Bruce picked up the discarded emergency case and lifted out the back up Stark Phone that Tony have given him, turned the device on, and activated the emergency beacon built into the phone. He then set the phone to one side with the automatic answer function on and turned his attention to the kid that was potentially dying because of him while he waited for Tony to contact him.

The first two injuries that Bruce cleaned (as best he could using a bit of dirt-free snow) and bandaged were a gash on the side of the kid's head where it looked like the kid had hit his head on a sharp rock and another one on his forehead that was surrounded by a dark, near black bruise that had spread across a good two-thirds of the kid's face. As he secured the fabric around the kid's skull, Bruce hoped that the kid didn't have a serious concussion on top of the head injuries. Next, he bandaged another nasty gash on the kid's right arm in the crook of his elbow that almost looked like a knife wound.

The kid's right hand also had a rather severe third-degree burn covering the entire underside of the hand and Bruce pressed his lips together as he realized there was nothing he could do to treat the burn out here in the wilderness aside from lightly wrapping it to keep the dirt out of it. After that, he pulled up the kid's shirt to find his chest bruised bad enough that Bruce suspected the kid had several cracked ribs in addition to the bleeding gashes that ran along the lower edge of the rib cage on the left side and across his abdomen. Bruce carefully cleaned and bandaged the two gashes before he used the remains of the kid's ruined shirt to snugly wrap the kid's entire torso to brace his ribs.

"Bruce, what are you doing vacationing out in the mountains of South Eastern France when you are supposed to be attending a symposium in London, England," Tony Stark's voice suddenly demanded at that point.

"Now is not the time, Tony," Bruce retorted irritably as he ripped the left leg from the kid's pants in order to deal with the badly swollen and potentially broken left knee; his eyes narrowing in confusion when he noted the puncture marks on either side of the swollen joint. "I need an urgent lift to the nearest hospital; the Other Guy did a number on a kid and he needs medical attention now or he will die."

"I already have a jet en route; J.A.R.V.I.S. sent it off in your direction the moment you activated the emergency beacon on your phone," Tony replied as he dropped his normally playful attitude. "Give me a stat report on the kid and I'll find the nearest facility that is capable of treating him."

"Severe head wound, potential concussion, blunt trauma to the face with extensive bruising, severe burn on the right hand, multiple gashes (on his right arm, lower left rib cage, and across his abdomen), deep bruising of the chest region and a high probability of multiple cracked ribs, and his left knee is swollen (potentially broken patella or torn ligaments and tendons) with puncture marks that are oozing a clear substance alongside of the blood. He's lost a considerable amount of blood and his injuries were still bleeding when I woke up just a few minutes earlier. The child is currently unconscious, suffering from exposure to the elements, and both his breathing and his heartbeat are very weak."

"Those injuries are not consistent with the Hulk's MO of 'smash all things puny' and according to the eyewitness accounts I've just skimmed through, the green guy was seen carrying something across the channel late last night," Tony stated in reply and Bruce could just picture the man narrowing his eyes in thought. "I'm going to meet you there with an emergency field kit and we'll load him up on the jet together when it arrives; we'll have to bring him back here and find out why the Hulk felt the need to take the kid on a tour of the European continent."

"Great, just great," Bruce muttered. "Not only am I a mindless killing machine with anger management issues, I'm now a kidnapper. I knew I shouldn't have let you talk me into lecturing at the symposium."

"Or you just might be a hero. Can you remember anything at all that happened after the green guy went for a stroll last night?"

"No, I had a splitting headache when I woke up and since then I have been far more concerned with saving the life of the kid I found beside me and ignoring the fact that I'm sitting half naked in the mountains at the tail end of winter. How soon are you going to be here?"

"Ten minutes max; I'm already in the air and flying over the Atlantic."

"Thank you, Tony."

"Anything for a friend, Bruce."

Bruce laughed softly as he thought back to everything Tony had done for him over the last year. He then winced as he glanced back down at the child he'd kidnapped while he'd been 'Hulked' out. A quick check of the time told him he only had another eight minutes to wait and he pulled out the heart monitor slash watch combo that was part of his emergency stores and slipped it onto his wrist. He then checked the boy's pulse and pupils before he started to look for any injuries he might have missed and to check for signs of frostbite on the child's extremities.

Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit dropped down out of the sky with a heavy thud several minutes later and Bruce glanced up at his fellow Avenger as the man angled his face towards the child on the ground as he dropped a large, heavy brief case down on the ground beside Bruce. After a long minute, Tony lifted up his face place and stated, "He's running a temperature of one hundred four point three degrees Fahrenheit, has two broken and six cracked ribs, internal bleeding in the abdominal cavity, and his knee is pretty messed up. Good news is that he doesn't appear to have a concussion, his lungs are unharmed, shows no signs of suffering from hypothermia, and he has not suffered any spinal injuries despite the deep bruising on his back."

"How soon until the jet arrives?"

"Less than eleven minutes; let's get him on the stretcher and strapped in before we hook him up to an IV and the oxygen supply," Tony suggested as the suit he was wearing peeled itself away from his body so that it wouldn't be in the way.

Working together, it took the two men ten minutes to strap the kid onto the stretcher, insert a sterilized needle attached to the IV tubing to the kid's arm and start him on a bag of saline solution, slip an oxygen mask over the kid's face, and connect the transport harness onto the stretcher so that they could lift him off the ground. J.A.R.V.I.S. (Tony's highly advanced A.I. system) engaged the jet's wench system and lowered the cables the moment the jet dropped down to hover three hundred feet above the trio.

Tony then put his Iron Man suit back on in order to guide the stretcher up to the jet to ensure that the injured child made it safely up to the waiting jet. While Tony was taking care of that, Bruce packed up the emergency field kit and any scrap of evidence that he or the child had been in the area. That included burying the patch of blood soaked snow that the kid had been laying on with the shovel he'd pulled from the emergency field kit.

"Okay, your lost waif has been secured and J.A.R.V.I.S. is performing a more in depth diagnostic scan and monitoring his vital signs," Tony announced several minutes after he disappeared into the jet and Bruce let out a sigh of relief. "Go ahead and finish packing up the extra supplies and anything we need to take with us; I'll be down to grab you in two shakes of a dog's tail."

"Already done," Bruce countered as he deactivated the locator beacon, shut off the phone, and tucked it back into his emergency case so that it wouldn't get lost.

The gold and red metal-suited billionaire dropped back down to the forest floor a couple of minutes later and collected the nuclear physicist slash geneticist. Bruce concentrated on regulating his pulse as he was flown up to the waiting jet; he had no wish to have the Other Guy show up again so soon. It only took a few minutes for the two of them to reach the jet and Bruce made a beeline for the child he'd kidnapped the second his feet hit the floor while ignoring his still aching head.

"Sir, the child's blood toxicity levels are through the roof," J.A.R.V.I.S. stated the moment the hatch slid closed as the jet headed up higher into the atmosphere and turned to point its nose back towards New York.

"Toxic how? Poison? Drugs?" Tony demanded as he once again exited his suit.

"An abnormally large amount of spider venom, sir."

"Define 'abnormally large amount' and tell me what kind of spider venom we're looking at here," Tony demanded as he began reading through the data that J.A.R.V.I.S. had been collecting since he'd hooked the child up to the jet's internal systems.

"We're looking at a minimum of one pint of venom, sir; and the venom is a combination cytotoxin and anti-coagulant from an unknown species of spider."

"Where is the injection site and how much damage has the venom caused?" Bruce demanded as he eyed the rather diminutive boy.

"Traces of the venom have circulated throughout the child's entire body while the largest concentration of venom can be found in the child's left leg. There is no clear indication that he was bitten by an actual spider but based upon the venom concentration levels in and around his left knee, the venom was crudely administered through the puncture wounds that were found on either side of the child's knee. The damage done by the venom has been minimal due to the presence of a powerful antivenin already within the child's bloodstream counteracting all but the anti-coagulant aspect of the spider's venom."

"What type of antivenin?" Tony inquired as he continued to scan the analysis of the child's condition. "And start a search for any known thefts of large quantities of experimental spiders or spider venoms over the past decade."

"Snake venom antivenin; created naturally within his body. It is far more potent than expected and does not match the spectrum readings of any known snake antivenin currently on record, sir."

"Okay, so we've got an unrecognizable spider venom that is being held at bay by an unrecognizable snake venom based antivenin on top of multiple knife wounds, more than a few burns, broken and cracked bones, some serious bruising, and extensive and unexplainable nerve damage throughout the kid's entire body. Someone has seriously worked this kid over and I am absolutely certain that it wasn't our friend the jolly green giant. J.A.R.V.I.S., do we have a name to go with the boy's face yet?"

"No, sir; no match has been found as of yet. There have also been no police reports of any large scale thefts of spider venom or snake antivenin from any laboratory within the last twenty years."

"How long until we reach New York?"

"Two minutes, seventeen seconds, sir; and a bed has already been prepared for the child in the Infirmary."

"Good work, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony replied as he closed out the medical analysis that had been generated. "Do me a favor and transfer all of the boy's files to my private server; I don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. to even get a whiff of this kid until we know who he is, what happened to him, who is responsible for his current condition, and where his parents are."

Bruce said nothing as he stared out the window at the horizon; his thoughts miles away as he worried over the fate of the child that the Hulk had kidnapped.

* * *

**Notes:**

A.I. – **A**rtificial **I**ntelligence  
Anti-coagulant – prevents the blood from clotting  
Cytotoxins – venom that attacks the cells  
J.A.R.V.I.S. – **J**ust **A** **R**ather **V**ery **I**ntelligent **S**ystem  
Neurotoxin – venom that attacks the nervous system  
S.H.I.E.L.D. – **S**trategic **H**omeland **I**ntervention, **E**nforcements and **L**ogistics **D**ivision

* * *

**AN:** _And there you have the first chapter of my first foray into the wonderful world of Marvel's Avenger universe. I have long been a fan of HP/Avenger crossovers and have been toying with this story for well over a year. The plot calls for a trilogy but I may end up putting them all under one title instead; I'll cross that bridge when I get to it._

_In the mean time, I'm not as familiar with the Marvel Verse and most of what I know is from decades earlier. I have, for the sake of authenticity, done research through various Marvel and fan sites as well as watched some of the movies that have come out but I have by no means seen all of them. So, there are bound to be canon mistakes aplenty but I'm not worried about it because this story is labeled as AU. There's also a bit of stuff I've thrown out or altered as I saw fit in the course of writing this story._

_The other thing you will need to note, is that the Avenger's timeline will probably be shuffled and juggled to make it fit with my story due to the headache I got when trying to decipher the official timeline. Relevant dates will be marked at the top of each section as demonstrated in both sections of the chapter above. Explanations of what is happening and how Harry ended up where he did will, of course, be explained through the story. ~ Jenn_

**08-14-16:**_ Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes._


	2. Stark Realities

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 01: Stark Realities

_Friday, April 03, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

Harry let out a low, growling moan as he woke to find himself in a soft, comfortable bed. He then promptly curled up beneath his covers and buried his head beneath a pillow in an attempt to sink back into oblivion to escape the lingering ache he still felt. The fourteen year old wizard bolted up and out of the borrowed bed he was sleeping in two seconds later when his memories from the graveyard slammed back into his head. As soon as he had opened his eyes, it didn't take him more than two heartbeats to figure out that he wasn't in his dorm room, in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, or his cramped bedroom at the Dursleys.

Panic began filling Harry as he took in the sterile metal walls of the room he'd woken up in. As he backed away from the odd looking metal bed he'd been lying in, Harry felt something tugging at his chest and when he looked down he found several wires and tubes linked to his half naked body. He stared at them for a split second before he began ripping them away, uncaring of the pain he felt as the adhesive patches were roughly pulled from his skin and he barely even flinched when he pulled the needle from his arm.

Harry was just pulling the tube from his nose when the door to the room slid open to admit an unfamiliar man that was wearing a white lab coat. The man frowned at Harry as he stated, "You really shouldn't have pulled the leads from your chest or the IV from your arm; you could have seriously hurt yourself."

"Who are you? Where am I? How did I even get here? Why am I here? What is it you want from me?" Harry demanded all in one breath as he warily moved around to place the bed between himself and the unfamiliar man.

"I am Dr. Bruce Banner and you don't have to be afraid; I'm not going to hurt you. You were in a right sorry state when I found you."

"Is this a hospital then?"

"No; it's more of a private infirmary. If you'll climb back into bed, I'll hook you back up to the monitors and run a few tests to make certain that we didn't miss anything while you were unconscious."

"Er, no; I don't think so," Harry retorted with a brisk head shake; he didn't trust the unfamiliar doctor at all. "I don't know you and you still haven't told me exactly where I am or what it is you want with me. If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer it if you pointed me to the exit instead." At that point, Harry recalled the giant troll that had saved him as he added, "I need to track down a… friend."

"Sorry, no can do, kid," another man announced as strode into the room like he owned it (which Harry would later find out the man did, in fact, own the room along with the rest of the building it resided in). "We can't just let a kid your age wander off on his own; that would be highly irresponsible of us. How about this; you give us the names, address, and phone number of your parents and we'll call them so they can come pick you up? It might help if you were to give us your name as well."

Harry tilted his head to one side and narrowed his eyes as he replied, "Ah, no; I'm fourteen, almost fifteen, and not stupid; meaning I know better than to trust two perfect strangers. I'm also more than old enough to take care of myself."

"Fourteen…?" the unnamed man repeated in disbelief. "Get out of here; you can't be a day older than twelve, if that."

"I was cursed with short genetics and idiots for relatives," Harry snarked back as he reached up to adjust his glasses only to realize that he wasn't wearing them. He patted his face in confusion and rubbed his eyes before he stared at the two men watching him; panic rising as he realized he could see both men clearly despite the fact that he was not wearing his glasses. Taking a shaky breath, Harry demanded, "What the hell have you done to me?"

"We healed you," Dr. Banner answered as he lifted his arms in a placating gesture. "Please, I assure you that we do not wish to harm you; we only want to help you. We'll even help you find your friend before we get you back home."

"No. I don't need any help nor do I want any help; all I want is for you to let me go. I suppose I owe you a thank you for healing me, and once I get home I can make arrangements to repay you for that, but I don't need anything else from you or your nameless friend, Dr. Banner."

"Nameless…?" the unnamed man gasped in shock as his mouth fell open. "Don't you recognize me?"

"No, sorry; I've never seen you before. You're probably confusing me with my father; I've been told countless times that I looked just like him."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., I thought you said you checked for any signs of a concussion," the man called out to the air as he frowned at Harry. "The kid is obviously suffering from some serious head trauma if he doesn't recognize me."

"All of the scans taken of the young man's brain came back normal, sir; bar the unusually high level of brain activity that the scanners are currently registering," a voice with a British accent stated from out of no where; making Harry jump and glance around the room for a third person.

"Then why the hell doesn't the kid know who I am?" the man petulantly demanded.

"I didn't think any one could have an ego larger than Lockhart," Harry half muttered to himself as he snapped his head back around to stare at the grown man who was now pouting at the teen.

"Don't mind Tony; he's used to being the center of attention," Dr. Banner stated with a nervous laugh.

"I'm Tony Stark, I'm always the center of attention," the other man stated as he straightened up to look Harry up and down carefully. "Maybe he'd recognize me if I had on my Iron Man suit."

"Iron Man suit? What is that?" Harry asked as he wrinkled his brow in confusion before he shook his head and pushed his curiosity to the back of his mind. "You know what, don't answer that; I don't care what it is. Will one of you please just tell me what you did to me and then show me the way out?"

"You don't know who Iron Man is?" Dr. Banner parroted back with more than a little surprise while the other man gave Harry a blank look before he stalked out of the room. "Don't take this the wrong way but have you been living under a rock all of your life? I mean, Tony Stark… Stark Industries is huge… a company known world wide and Iron Man? Iron Man is… well, it's Iron Man."

"I might as well have been living under a rock; I spent the last four years at a boarding school and my summers with my relatives. Still, I'm really not interested in hearing all about Mr. Stark, his company, or his weird metal suit; so you don't have to worry about filling me in. All I really want is for you to tell me what it is that you've done to me and for you to let me leave."

"Tell you what, you sit down on the bed and allow me to give you a cursory examination while you answer a few of my questions and I will answer a few of your questions. You can discuss your departure with Tony later. Does that sound fair enough to you?"

Harry frowned slightly as he contemplated the doctor's offer before he let out a sigh when he realized it was probably the best he was going to get. He then gave Dr. Banner a reluctant nod as he climbed up onto the bed and pulled the discarded sheet around him as he finally realized just how cold the room felt.

"You can keep the sheet around your shoulders if you are cold but I need to you scoot up to the edge and drop your legs over the side of the bed for me so I can test your reflexes," Dr. Banner instructed as he stepped up to the bed. "And, if you could start with your name, I would appreciate having something to call you other than kid or hey you."

"Harry. What did you do to my eyes?"

"We removed a foreign substance that was pressing down on your optical nerves and repaired the long term damage caused by the substance. What are your parents' names? And I need you to take a deep breath for me."

"My parents are dead," Harry replied as he restrained himself from reaching up to finger the lightning bolt scar on his forehead while the doctor checked his heart and lungs. "Where am I?"

"Stark Tower, New York City. When and how did your parents die?"

"October thirty-first, nineteen eighty-one and they…" Harry answered before he trailed off; the wizard a bit unsure of how to finishing answering the question because he was certain the two men were muggles. He briefly considered telling them that his parents had died in a car crash (as his aunt and uncle had told him for years) before he decided that it would be wrong to belittle their sacrifice in such a way now that he knew the truth. "They were killed by a madman; they died trying to protect me. Why did you bring me to New York? Why didn't you just take me to the closest hospital?"

"We originally planned to take you to the nearest hospital but there were some… irregularities with your situation that would have caused a lot of problems. So, Tony brought you here where we knew you would receive the treatment you needed without any hassles. What is your birthdate? And do you know the name of the man that killed your parents? Or if you don't know his name, a description of him would do."

"I was born on July thirty-first, nineteen eighty. And Tom Riddle is no longer human enough to be called a man; he'd become a monster long before he kill my mum and dad. He's dead now and hopefully, this time, he'll stay dead too. When you found me… was there another, older boy? He… Pettigrew killed him but his body should have been in the graveyard where you found me."

"I didn't find you in a graveyard, I apparently found you in Hyde Park but we were in the French Alps when I finally woke up. I don't remember there being anyone but you there. Could you tell me what happened to you that night and how you got injured?"

Harry felt his heart ache as the memory of Cedric's death hit him hard at that moment and he reached up to press his hands to his face. He also remembered the grim realization of his own impending death during that terrible duel with Voldemort and how easily he'd accepted that he would die that night.

"Harry…?" Dr. Banner gently prompted.

"I can't. I can't tell you anything more. I… I need to get to Scotland. I need to tell the Headmaster what happened to Cedric and Voldemort. I have to warn him about the Death Eaters. And I have to find the… friend that saved me and make sure nothing happened to him."

The door to the room slid open again at that point and Harry lifted his head out of his hands in time to see a human sized red and gold robot walk into the room. The robot thing walked to the middle of the room and placed its hands on its hips and demanded, "Now do you recognize me, kid?"

"Uh, no; I didn't know that talking robots existed," Harry replied as he stared at the talking machine.

"I'm not a robot!" the machine spluttered in response as it lifted a hand and peeled the face plate off to reveal the other man from earlier, the one Dr. Banner had called Tony Stark.

"Is that the suit you were talking about earlier? Why would anyone want to wear a metal suit? Doesn't it get too hot to wear outside when the sun is up?" Harry asked as he eyed the suit while Dr. Banner covered his mouth and smothered his laughter.

"This suit no mere suit I'm wearing… it's a state of the art piece of technological genius and with it, I am Iron Man."

"Good for you, sir; I like the color. However, I still say that it looks far too hard and complicated to get into and out of; what happens when you have to pee?"

"I just pee right in the suit; no need to take it off."

"Oh, gross; that is so disgusting! Why would you…? How could you stand walking around covered in pee? What do you do when the suit fills up and you're swimming in your own pee? Urgh, I think I'm going to be sick just thinking about it."

"Oh, don't be a drama queen; the suit has a filtration system that deals with it and the water it produces is clean enough to drink."

"I so did not need to know that. That is just so… urgh, can I go now? I am almost tempted to go find Lockhart and have the barmy ponce permanently wipe the memory of you and your tin-can-toilet-suit from my mind."

"We are going to need more information from you before we can take you home," Mr. Stark replied once he'd collected himself (the man had gaped at Harry due to the insult that the teen had directed at the Iron Man Suit). "Such as the names of your current guardians, your home address, the address of your school, what you think the current date is, and a name or description of your friend. Like I said earlier, it would be irresponsible of us to let a _fourteen_ year old wander off on his own."

Harry didn't like the way Mr. Stark had stressed his age, as if he didn't believe Harry about his age. He also didn't really want to give the man any more information than he'd already given Dr. Banner. When it became apparent that the man was still waiting for answers, Harry evasively replied, "My boarding school is in Scotland; my headmaster will see to it that I get back to my relatives after I tell him what happened. You don't need to worry about my friend and I don't know what day it is because I don't know how long I was out."

"You were unconscious for two weeks," Dr. Banner offered in response to Harry's final statement.

"That would make it the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of June," Harry murmured half to himself.

"And the year?" Mr. Stark prompted.

"Nineteen-ninety-five."

"Wrong answer, pal," Mr. Stark countered as he crossed his arms with a clank. "You're off on your calculations by about three months and twenty years, kid; it's April third of the year twenty-fifteen. So, who are you really and where are you from? And who is this supposed friend you keep talking about?"

It was Harry's turn to gape at Mr. Stark as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea that he'd somehow lost twenty years after the events in the graveyard. He then frowned and shook his head in denial even as he rasped out, "No, you're lying. I can't possibly have lost twenty years…"

Harry's voice trailed off and the blood drained from his face as a small part of him realized that it was entirely possible for him to have lost twenty years. There were plenty of spells that could manipulate time and there were magical aides and artifacts that could take one back in time (time turners, for one); so it was possible that he'd lost a significant number of years. He began hyperventilating as he recalled the golden dome of magic that had engulfed him and Voldemort when their spells had connected and the effect the spells of the Death Eaters had had on that dome of volatile magic when the Dark Lord had ordered his minions to kill Harry.

"Hey, hey; calm down, kid," Mr. Stark ordered as he reached out to grab hold of Harry.

Harry threw himself into a backwards roll that had him dropping down off the bed once more in order to maintain his distance from the metal-suited man. The teen's stomach twisted with panic and despair as his mind created all kinds of horrible scenarios taking place after he'd been thrown forward through time. At the same time, the little magic that his core had not used to help facilitate his recovery began shifting in response to his emotions which in turn caused the lights in the room to flicker.

"Tony, is that you playing with the lights?" Dr. Banner demanded; his curt voice cutting through Harry's panic, drawing the teen's attention to his fluctuating magic.

"Uh, no; that's not me Bruce."

Taking a deep breath, Harry calmed himself and backed further away from both men as he tried to think of how he could get to Hogwarts where there would be someone he could trust to help him. _Help you…? Since when has anyone in that castle helped you?_ Harry's sub-conscience insidiously demanded as it brought up the wealth of memories he had of all the times the staff had failed him and the other students. _Face it, Harry; those people could care less what happened to you and if you did go to them, they'd blame you for whatever it was that happened all those years ago. Isn't that what they always do? Blame you for every little thing that goes wrong?_

Harry's knees buckled and he staggered for a couple of steps before he dropped down onto his knees as the weight of those old memories pressed down on him and his sub-conscience continued to whisper, _None of them will listen to you, they never do. Not when you tried to warn Professor McGonagall about someone being after the Stone, not when you denied being the Heir of Slytherin, not when you tried to tell the Minister that your godfather was innocent, and not when you told the entire school that you didn't put your name into the Goblet of Fire. _

_Where were the teachers when you faced Voldemort twice in your first year? Where were they in your second year when Hagrid was arrested? And when you faced Voldemort and a basilisk beneath the castle? What did any of the adults do to protect Hagrid and Buckbeak from the Malfoys in your third year? Where were the rest of the staff when Pettigrew escaped? When the dementors attacked? When Fudge prepared to have Sirius's soul sucked removed without a proper trial? _

_And what help were the staff in preventing you and Cedric from falling into a trap during the final task of the Tournament? Where was Dumbledore while Pettigrew was murdering Cedric? When the traitor stole your blood in order to bring back Voldemort? Or when Voldemort was torturing you? Face it, that world cares nothing for you; it never has. After all, they were the ones that consigned you to the Dursleys and a childhood of servitude._

"Harry, you need to calm down," Dr. Banner instructed and Harry snapped his head up to find the doctor crouching just a few feet away from him. "Easy; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just worried about you."

"I'm fine," Harry replied automatically; that particular response so deeply ingrained in his psyche that it would never occur to him to give any other answer regardless of how 'fine' he wasn't.

"Does that mean your panic attack is over, kid?" Mr. Stark inquired nonchalantly as he too moved closer to the teen.

"I wasn't panicking," Harry denied with a frown. "I was… reflecting."

"Uh-huh… and what did you learn from your reflections, kid?"

"That I absolutely hate it when people call me kid," Harry deadpanned as he half glared at the man in an effort to distract the man from digging too deeply into what had just happened.

"So, being called kid makes you go loopy until you end up in a not-panic attack?" Mr. Stark snarkily asked as he gave Harry a knowing look.

"Only when I'm confronted by crazy men in portable metal toilets."

"Ouch, that was a direct attack upon my person. I'd be highly offended about that if not for the fact that I've had far worse accusations and insults hurled at me. What other great insights have you been having in that half developed brain of yours?"

"What do you care?" Harry demanded in a quiet voice as his green eyes glittered with a mixture of fear and anger as he continued to maintain eye contact with the man. "You're just another adult in a long line of adults who will never listen to what I have to say. You will never see me as anything but a useless child; something not worth your time unless I have something that you want."

"You're way too young to be that cynical," Dr. Banner stated in a low voice.

"Don't be naïve, Bruce; life's harsher lessons are never age restricted," Mr. Stark chided as he continued to hold Harry's gaze. "And are you sure you want to challenge me like that, kid? I should warn you now, kid; I never back down from a challenge. You might not like it when I prove that I am not like the other adults you've known."

Harry snorted, "No other adult I've known has ever worn a metal suit that doubles as a full-body toilet; doesn't make you any less crazy though nor does it make you any less likely to ignore me again."

"I've not ignored you once."

"You've not let me leave, even after I've asked you to show me the way out several times."

"I didn't ignore you; I told you why we won't let you go."

"There's nothing you can do for me and there is no one who will come for me."

"What about the friend you mentioned earlier? Or the headmaster from your school?" Dr. Banner inquired with a slight frown.

"My headmaster is a busy man; he has more important things to do than come running halfway around the world just to take me home. As for my friend, I don't know his name and I have no idea where he lives."

"Then how could you possibly call him your friend?" Mr. Stark asked as he reached up to scratch the back of his head; his metal clad fingers scraping across the metal helmet he wore over his head. "And I thought you said your headmaster would be able to take you back to your relatives?"

"He killed Voldemort and saved my life," Harry explained wearily as he ran his hand through his hair and dropped his eyes to the floor. "What else could I call him but a friend after that? And Dumbledore would send me back to my relatives, he always does, but that doesn't mean he will waste his time to fetch me. That's if he's even still alive; he was positively ancient twenty years ago…"

"Okay, let's ignore the decrepit headmaster with one foot in the grave for now and focus on this, uh, friend of yours. For starters, do you think you could describe him for me?"

"He was… tall; very tall," Harry replied as he frantically tried to think of the best way to describe the giant troll that saved him without actually saying the creature was a troll. "Muscular too; he was definitely very, very strong. And I remember he had black hair and green eyes that were much lighter in color than mine. He didn't talk much though."

"Uh-huh, your friend didn't happen to have green skin, did he?"

Harry's breath caught in the back of his throat as he snapped his head up to pierce Mr. Stark with angry green eyes as he immediately feared for the life of the troll and demanded, "What did you do to him?"

"Whoa, I didn't do anything to him, buddy. I was just asking a question and I'm pretty certain you just answered it."

"You better not have hurt him," Harry snarled as he pushed himself back to his feet; his magic once again stirring.

"No, he's a bit hard to hurt," Dr. Banner muttered with a grimace.

"Where is he? What have you done to him? I won't let you keep him in a cage! He may not be human but that doesn't give you the right to lock him up as part of some kind of freak show."

"Relax, kid, the jolly green giant is not in a cage and he's not part of a freak show. He's actually a rather famous hero."

"Stop calling me kid and my friend wasn't a giant; he was a mountain troll. Well, a mountain troll on steroids. Though I suppose it's possible he could have giant blood in family tree. He was semi-intelligent too. Only troll I've ever come across that could speak English."

"A troll?" Mr. Stark snickered as he cast a sideways glance at Dr. Banner for some reason. "And he spoke to you? What did he say?"

"He didn't say anything to me… he uh, called Voldemort a… uh… er, well he called him puny right before he flattened him."

"Everything is puny to the Hulk."

"You said he's a famous hero… does that mean you know where he is?"

"Yes, I always know where he is," Dr. Banner stated with another grimace. "He hardly ever comes out though."

"So, he is locked in a cage then," Harry growled as he swung his sharp gaze from Mr. Stark to Dr. Banner.

"No, he's a… um… he's not exactly a real person, you see; he's part of another."

"Yeah right, there's no such thing as were-trolls and it was not even the full moon when I saw him. If he's some kind of celebrity hero, why is he locked up all of the time?"

"He's got some rather potent anger issues; he likes to smash things," Mr. Stark answered with a small smirk. "We all love the big guy though, I even consider him a friend. You know, you and I have a lot in common; the Hulk saved my life not that long ago. He helped save the entire city actually."

"Let him out," Harry ordered as he ignored the part about him and Mr. Stark having anything in common.

"He's not caged, he's sleeping," Dr. Banner insisted and Harry thought the man was looking a little panicky as his watch began beeping rapidly.

"_I don't care! Let him go!_" Harry yelled angrily as his magic exploded out of him.

The lights in the room exploded while the building's power surged in response to Harry's uncontrolled magic. Outside of the building, everything within ten miles of Stark Tower went dark as the area was knocked off of the power grid by the relatively weak if potent discharge of magic (Harry's core still rather depleted from the third task, his duel with Voldemort, and from the extensive healing his body had required due to the severity of his injuries).

Inside of the room, exhaustion slammed into Harry a split second after his magic had exploded outwards and his eyes rolled up in the back of his head as he passed out.

* * *

**AN:** _Poor Harry, he's completely out of his depth here. I mostly had a ball writing this chapter last year; the entire scene where Harry insults the Iron Man suit several times always made me crack up each time I fiddled with the chapter to edit out the little mistakes I'd missed the first ten times I edited it. Poor Tony too, not only was he not recognized, his precious suit was picked on. Repeatedly. By a snot-nosed teen. *snickers* ~ Jenn_

**08-14-16:**_ Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes._


	3. Unraveling Puzzles

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 02: Unraveling Puzzles

_Friday, April 03, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

"Shit, what the hell was that?" Tony demanded on the heels of a groan.

"Are you alright, Tony?" Bruce inquired as he tried to calm his racing heart and let go of the slight panic that had started creeping up on him the moment the boy he'd Hulk-napped had started getting angry. "Do you know what happened to the lights in here?"

"Yeah, I'm fine big guy; just a bit overcharged but otherwise fine. As for the lights? I have no clue as to what happened to them. How about you? Are you staying calm over there?"

"I'm getting there," Bruce replied as he slowly began moving in the direction he vaguely recalled the kid had been in just before the lights cut out while he dug a penlight out of his pocket and turned it on so he could see where he was going. "And what about you, Harry…? Are you okay?"

"Hey, Harry; are you alright there, buddy? Harry…? Kid…?" Tony repeated when the boy hadn't immediately replied to Bruce's inquiry.

"He passed out," Bruce stated a moment later as the light of his penlight washed over the kid's unconscious form pooled on the floor in the middle of the darkened room.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., report!" Tony ordered as Bruce heard him flip his face plate of his Iron Man suit down; the man obviously looking to assess the current situation. Keeping one ear on the conversation Tony was having with his computerized butler, Bruce clamped the end of his penlight between his teeth so that he could scoop the unconscious teen off the floor and set him back on the bed.

"There was a significant power surge that was centered within the room you are standing in. The surge destabilized both the building's Arc Reactor and the portable Arc Reactor in your chest for a brief moment before causing a significant and immediate increase in the energy output of both reactors. At the same time, the surge overloaded the active light modules on this floor and disrupted the city's power grid enough to shut down the power to all buildings within ten miles of the tower."

"What is the current status of both reactors?"

"Both Arc Reactors are currently stable and appear to be maintaining the increased level of production. I am monitoring the situation and recording the data for further analysis."

"Good, good. Have you been able to pinpoint the origin of the surge?"

"Yes, the source was the young man Dr. Banner is currently placing on the bed."

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that, J.A.R.V.I.S.; I could have sworn you just blamed a _power_ surge on a fourteen year old kid."

"That is correct, sir; young Harry was the source of the power that created the surge. Initial scans indicate that the power inside of the child fluctuates with his emotions as there was a small surge during Harry's earlier panic attack."

"What is Harry's current condition?"

"Exhausted, sir; his power levels were completely depleted during the surge."

"Is he a mutant?"

"No, sir; his D.N.A. did not carry the X-gene. However, there are anomalies within his D.N.A. that may be linked to the power his body apparently generates or potentially absorbs."

"What exactly is that power? Is it electromagnetic? Bio-metric?"

"It appears to be the same energy that is produced by the Arc Reactors, sir."

"Wait a minute, are you implying that the kid is a living Arc Reactor?" Bruce demanded as he finally cottoned onto what Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. were talking about after he'd finished settling Harry back on the bed.

"It certainly appears that way," Tony mused as he stepped up beside the bed to scan the unconscious child with his suit's scanners. "Why didn't you notice the kid's energy output sooner, J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"The amount of energy that the young man radiates when the energy is dormant is negligible and the presence of your Arc Reactor in the same room drowns out his signature unless I am actively looking for it. It wasn't until he released a significant amount of energy in his anger that I actually picked up on it, sir."

"Is he radiating right now?"

"No, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. "Mr. Stark, you have a call on line two from Nick Fury."

"Tell him I'll call him back later and if it's about the power surge, tell him that I made a miscalculation on the Mark XII suit and that it won't happen again. I'll pay for the City's repairs once they've estimated the costs involved."

"You weren't working on your suit, Tony," Bruce stated as he frowned at the suited man.

"No I wasn't, but I'm not about to tell Fury that the kid you kidnapped knocked the power out. S.H.I.E.L.D. would step in and haul the kid away for who knew what kind of experiments if they knew that he was a walking power source."

"Point," Bruce admitted with a slight wince as he recalled the 'cage' that S.H.I.E.L.D. had created and installed on the helicarrier to hold the Hulk. "What are we going to do about the kid?"

"Keep him for now. Have you tried to remember what happened the night the Hulk picked the kid up?"

"Just bits and pieces; I remember taking a walk through the park after the sunset to get some fresh air but I can't recall what set me off. One second I was enjoying the peace and quiet of the empty park and the next the Hulk was there. I do briefly recall feeling a surge of something just before the Other Guy appeared and I have a vague recollection of a blinding flash of light and pale man in a long black dress… but that is all."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., check the satellite database records and see if you can pinpoint any surges of Arc Reactor energy in London on the night that the Hulk made his appearance."

"Already done, sir; there was a large surge of power centered in Hyde Park that occurred just seconds before the Hulk made an appearance on the evening of the twentieth of March. A second surge was building in the same vicinity before it suddenly cut off while leaving a far weaker signature behind. That weaker signature can then be traced along the same path that the Hulk took across the channel until it ends in the French Alps where you picked up Dr. Banner the next day."

"Meaning that our little friend here was leaking power like crazy from the moment the Hulk picked him up. I wonder if it was his power that kept him alive long enough for us to treat him. Any other person would have bled out within hours, if not minutes, from the types and number of injuries that he'd received when combined with the anti-coagulant nature of the spider venom that we had extracted from him. Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S., did you ever pull up any information on the name Harry Potter?"

"Yes, sir; there were no matches that fit the description of the young man. Nor have I been able to dig up even a partial hit on any of the names that the young man provided to you or Dr. Banner during his brief period of consciousness."

"Potter…? How do you know his last name is Potter?" Bruce asked as he glanced up from where he'd been reinserting a new IV needle into Harry's arm in order to set him back up on the IV line that had been administering saline solution, pain reliever, and an antibiotic to the kid. He then moved on to reattaching the various monitoring equipment to the kid so that they could keep an eye on his vitals as he pointed out, "He never gave me his last name."

"The name Potter was sewn into the back of the ruined trench coat that he was wearing when you found him. It might not be his last name but the chances that it is, are actually fairly high. For now, you might want to consider sitting down and explaining the whole were-troll thing to the kid so he doesn't try to bite our heads off again for keeping the Hulk caged up."

"No, that's a bad idea…"

"No, keeping the truth from Harry is a bad idea; think of how angry he's going to be if he doesn't understand and still believes that the Hulk is a prisoner? You already know that he isn't going to hate you for it; he considers the green guy his friend and savior. In fact, he was awful protective of the big guy even though he hadn't actually been formally introduced to him. That's got to count for something, you know."

"And what happens when he demands that I show him the Other Guy in order to prove what I say is true?"

"Then we take a quick trip out to the middle of the desert somewhere, where there wouldn't be any one or any thing that could get hurt and you show him. Or, you could just let him see the videos that I have of you changing. You should at least give it some serious consideration before the kid wakes up."

"I'll think about it," Bruce replied to appease Tony though he really didn't intend to tell the kid anything.

"Just remember that the kid is rather partial to his personal hero and he's not going to take kindly to you trying to give him the run around," Tony declared before he disappeared through the door.

Bruce let out an irritated sigh before he closed his eyes and calmed himself. He knew the other man was only trying to help. And worse, he knew that Tony was right as he recalled the angry viridian eyes that had locked onto him less than a minute before the kid's anger had exploded outwards. Tony was going to be unbelievably smug the moment Bruce even appeared to acknowledge that his assessment of the situation was correct. Bruce let out another sigh as he grimaced; a smug Tony was not something he really wanted to deal with right now or ever, really.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., I'm going to go meditate before I return to bed; will you keep an eye on Harry and wake me the moment he shows signs of regaining consciousness?" Bruce asked as he headed towards the door.

"Yes, Dr. Banner."

"Thanks, J.A.R.V.I.S."

After meditating for just over an hour, Bruce slipped into his bed and immediately fell asleep. His dreams that night were filled with the disjointed afterimages of the Hulk's memories. Dreams and memories that he wouldn't remember once he woke late the next morning. He took a quick shower and dressed in a clean change of clothes before he headed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and a light breakfast. Bruce was more than a little surprised not to find Tony already in the kitchen before he shrugged the billionaire's absence off; Tony was probably in his lab building something.

His next stop, after he finished eating, was to check on the teen that the Hulk had both saved and kidnapped. He found the kid still out cold and he spent a few minutes making certain that there was nothing wrong with him aside from the apparent exhaustion he had experienced after his outburst the night before. Once he was confident that the child was fine (or as fine as he could be given the circumstances), he headed down to the science lab that Tony had given him to use to check on his various ongoing projects.

He was preparing to test yet another cure (the scientist still greatly desired to put an end to the Hulk, even if the Other Guy had been rather handy to have around during the Chitauri Invasion) when he stopped and stared at the extra vials of Harry's blood that he'd drawn from the teen for testing purposes while they'd been healing him. After a brief hesitation, he grabbed a single vial of the child's blood and began running yet another full spectrum analysis on the crimson fluid. At the same time, he pulled up all of the data that J.A.R.V.I.S. had collected on the child since Tony had picked them from France.

Bruce would continue testing Harry's blood for the rest of the day; he didn't even bother to break for lunch or supper. He even ran a series of tests on the spider venom that had been extracted from the teen and on the vile black substance that had been extracted from the teen's face. The most fascinating discovery that he'd come across was the fact that Harry's immune system could apparently fight off the more common childhood illnesses despite the fact that his blood actually lacked the antibodies needed to combat the illnesses. The geneticist in him crowed in triumph as he quickly realized that Harry's blood could potentially hold the key to recreating the Super Soldier Serum.

The rest of him abhorred the very idea of using the kid to aid the defunct project that the army had originally intended to use to create hundreds of genetically superior soldiers.

As Bruce cleaned up the lab late that night (once he'd run out of ideas to test), he contemplated everything he'd learned about Harry through his blood and through the various scans and tests they'd put the child through from the moment they'd picked him up. Aside from the kid's seemingly perfect immune system, his blood carried trace amounts of energy that registered the same signature as the energy created by the Arc Reactors. That energy at times seemed to have a mind of its own and more than once, Bruce had seen the energy repair ruptured blood cells and attack foreign cells that were introduced to the blood samples (such as bacteria or viruses).

He'd also noted that the energy in the kid's blood was attracted to vibranium alloy when he'd set his emergency case on the lap table beside the slide he'd been looking at after it had dug into his hip one too many times. He'd even shaved off a small piece of vibranium from the corner of his case (no easy feat) and placed it in a drop of blood and within seconds, the tiny sliver of metal had begun glowing blue; just like Tony's Arc Reactor. In fact, the moment the energy came into contact with the sliver of rare alloy, the energy in Harry's blood had begun multiplying itself.

Once he'd shut down the lab, Bruce made his way back to the Infirmary to check on Harry. As he stared down at the still sleeping child, Bruce wondered what would become of the child. He knew, in his heart, that the moment S.H.I.E.L.D. learned of the boy's existence that they'd take him into custody; that was what S.H.I.E.L.D. did with anything or anyone that could even potentially pose a threat in some hypothetical future.

Bruce swore, right then and there, that he would help Tony protect the teen for as long as humanly possible.

* * *

Tony had indeed locked himself into his lab once he'd fixed the problem with the lights in the infirmary and, like Bruce, he spent that time conducting dozens of experiments; only his experiments focused solely on the energy that the child's body produced. He started by running several tests on the Arc Reactor in his chest in order to determine whether or not the power boost it had received from the outburst of the boy's energy was permanent or temporary and if it was going to cause him problems in the near future. (The results were inconclusive at the moment.)

He also had J.A.R.V.I.S. provide him a real-time spectrum feed of the teen's body so he could watch and monitor the production of the energy in order to determine whether the kid actually produced the energy or if he just absorbed it. It wouldn't be until J.A.R.V.I.S. shunted him the results of Dr. Banner's blood and vibranium tests that he had solid confirmation that the kid's body actually produced the energy. That would lead the genius to running a few blood based experiments of his own; one of which was to use an ounce of Harry's blood and an ounce of vibranium in an empty Arc Reactor shell to power one of the Iron Man suits.

The results were phenomenal and had Tony really excited right up until he realized just what that discovery would mean for the teen.

Like Bruce, Tony found himself swearing to protect the teen for as long as humanly possible.

Something that most of the world would believe was more than a little out of character for the billionaire genius that most people considered to be rather self-centered and uncaring; which couldn't be further from the truth. He cared about a lot of things. He just refused to give the world ammunition to use against him because if they knew he cared for someone, then they would target that person in order to hurt or cripple him. So, he wore a mask to hide his true self and protect those he held dear. Very few people had managed to see beneath the man and accept him and all of his flaws.

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts… James 'Rhodey' Rhodes… and Harold 'Happy' Hogan…

Those three were his three closest and most important friends.

Bruce was rapidly becoming a fourth friend; his fellow scientist was more than smart enough to realize that Tony wore a mask to protect himself and respectable enough not to tear that mask apart just to see what was underneath it.

And that was just one of the reasons why Tony liked Bruce.

The other reason why Tony liked him was because there was never a dull moment when Bruce was around. The man was intelligent (almost as smart as Tony himself), he had a rather twisted and self-depreciating sense of humor, and things always got rather interesting whenever the man let the Other Guy out to play. He also knew that he owed the other man his life; it had been the Hulk, after all, that had saved him from becoming an Iron Pancake when he'd tumbled out of the portal after he'd diverted the nuke that S.H.I.E.L.D. had fired on New York through the portal.

It was that debt that had prompted Tony to open his home and his precious labs to the man. He'd also gone out of his way to show the man that he was not afraid of him. That Bruce tolerated him and his idiosyncrasies and stuck around only made him more endearing. That was why Tony had not hesitated to drop everything the moment he knew that Bruce needed his help. And, while he'd not admitted it to Bruce, Tony had actually known he would be needed long before Bruce had called him from the French Alps. That was how he'd been able to get there as quickly as he had.

The only thing he hadn't been prepared for was the little stray that Bruce had picked up on his way out of England. Oh, he'd seen the images that indicated that the Hulk was carrying some_thing_ but at the time he'd not known that it had actually been a some_one_ that Bruce had scampered off with until after he'd spoken to Bruce. Even after he'd been made aware of Bruce's new companion, he'd still not expected the little broken bundle of dynamite that was Harry Potter.

And the kid had been a complete mess at the time.

Part of the reason that Tony felt the need to protect the child now had everything to do with the condition in which the boy had been found and the work that he and Bruce had gone through to patch the kid up. Any discomfort Tony might have felt around the kid had been smothered during that same time; the man unable to stop himself from admiring the boy's tenacity in clinging to life when by all accounts, he should have died from his injuries shortly after the Hulk had absconded with him.

He was also amused by Harry's sarcastic wit and impressed with the way that the kid could think on his feet in stressful situations where any other kid would have panicked completely. In some ways, Harry reminded him of himself.

It was the combination of the kid's critical injuries, impudent attitude, unexpected loyalty to the Hulk, and his newfound knowledge of the kid's abilities that prompted Tony's decision to take his personal oath to protect the kid just one step further as he swore to provide the kid with the means to protect himself. He started by designing the Mark XIII Iron Man Suit specifically for the pint sized teen (the Mark XII was already in production); a process that would take close to two weeks (including testing and production of the prototype).

During that time, Tony would get very little sleep and rarely ever left his lab as he became completely wrapped up in his newest project. Keeping busy also helped him not to worry over the fact that the kid was not waking back up and that the levels of 'energy' the kid was producing remained distressingly low. He most certainly did not want to think about the possibility that the kid's outburst had caused a significant setback in his recovery but deep down he knew that it was the only logical reason for why the kid remained unconscious.

Tony had already suspected that it had been the kid's natural arc energy that had sustained him while he'd been injured; so it wasn't all that farfetched to think that the amount of energy the kid had unleashed during his little outburst would have had negative repercussions on his health and his recovery. He also knew the kid's babbling panic over being displaced by roughly twenty years had not been faked and that he truly believed that he'd been ripped out of time and deposited in the future.

And while Tony was not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, he knew that significant levels of mental or emotional stress could affect one's physical health and it was entirely possible that the kid didn't _want_ to wake up.

So, instead of worrying and stressing about what was or wasn't happening with their unexpected guest, Tony buried himself in his lab and did what he did best; invent. Occasionally, he deigned to interact with the outside world (usually because Pepper made him) but mostly he just focused his entire being on his newest project.

The suit design he chose to use for the model he was making for the kid was heavily based upon the Mark V's portability to keep the suit light enough for Harry to use while borrowing the Mark VII's upgraded internal systems to make the suit more reliable and therefore _safer_. The power supply for the new suit would incorporate an upgraded version of the blood and vibranium Mock Reactor that Tony had built. The propulsion system was also upgraded to provide the new suit with better mobility in order to allow the teen to escape rather than set him up to fight his way out of trouble; making certain to incorporate the anti-icing system just in case the kid flew too high.

He paid particular attention to the defensive capabilities of the suit, looking to increase the durability and strength of the armor to better protect the kid when he was wearing it. After much consideration, Tony incorporated one weapon system into the suit; the weapon setting for the Hand Repulsors (so he could clear an escape route if the need arose).

Once he finished the new suit's basic design, Tony ran into a slight problem; he had no real way to test the suit until Harry woke up.

He also quickly realized that the teen would outgrow the suit fairly quickly due to his age. Instead of making plans to build a series of individual suits to account for the kid's growth cycle, Tony went back to his drawing board and worked to create a way for the suit to grow with the teen. That actually involved creating a specialized computer system that would calibrate the suit to the kid's height and body mass each time he donned the suit. The suit's portability actually made incorporating such a system rather easy; since having an adjustable suit wasn't much different than reforming the suit into a suitcase.

The new calibration system would also allow Tony to test the initial prototype of the suit himself so that he could work out any bugs in the design without putting Harry at risk. And that was something that would probably save his life if (more like when) Pepper found out what he was currently up to. Tony might be a live-in-the-moment kind of guy but even he had a sense of self-preservation; even if said sense of self-preservation was a little stunted.

Once he had finished with the schematics for the new suit, Tony left J.A.R.V.I.S. in charge of monitoring the production of the new suit, while he built the kid a proper watch after he recalled the broken watch he'd found on the kid. He even included several cool features that he thought the kid would appreciate; such as an internal GPS, Wi-Fi capabilities, a remote activation link for the new suit, and a mini holographic projector.

After he finished the watch, Tony upgraded one of his advanced Stark Phones to include the same emergency beacon that he'd added to Bruce's backup phone along with a direct link to J.A.R.V.I.S. (so that he could both track the kid and give him access to the many invaluable resources that J.A.R.V.I.S. had access to). If anyone ever asked why he'd done something so out of character, he'd just claim that it was his intent to use both the phone and watch to keep track of the kid in order to keep him out of trouble.

Tony then began fiddling with Harry's broken glasses while he waited for the first prototype Mark XIII to come off of the production line; his thoughts drifting back to the way the kid had reacted upon discovering he could see without his glasses. The kid's reaction actually made Tony wonder just how long that tar-like substance had been pressing down on Harry's optical nerves and why no one had bothered to remove it sooner. The possibility that someone had experimented on the boy (the kid had been a mess at the time he'd been found and he obviously hadn't done it to himself) made Tony's stomach churn and only reinforced his decision to give the kid the tools he would need to protect himself.

After a few false starts, he eventually created a pair of ordinary (if ugly, in Tony's opinion – based as they were on Harry's old frames) looking glasses that would function much like the face mask of the Iron Man suit. The new glasses were made out of titanium, painted black, linked to both the upgraded Stark Phone and the custom watch, and could double as sunglasses with the touch of a button. All three pieces of technology (phone, watch, and glasses) would be powered with specialized vibranium batteries that Tony designed and built using a core of Harry's blood.

The forty-five year old was rather impressed with himself after he tested the new glasses. He even made plans to make himself a couple pairs; only his would be based off of a much more stylish set of frames and would be slightly more advanced than the pair he created for the kid. His would also be designed to run off of his arc reactor rather than off of the kid's blood though; since that would be far too creepy in Tony's mind.

And he was not a hypocrite.

He refused to use the kid as a personal generating station.

Before the billionaire genius could come up with another new idea to create, J.A.R.V.I.S. announced that the new prototype suit was complete and Tony would spend the rest of the night and all of the next two days testing and debugging the Mark XIII. He even flew the new suit out to an empty stretch of desert, assembled the suit, and gave it a thorough beating using the Mark X suit to see how well it would stand up to an all out attack.

By the time he returned to Stark Tower after the live fire test, Tony was feeling remarkably pleased with himself and the new suit. He was also inordinately pleased that the prototype had been finished before the kid had finally regained consciousness two days and two weeks after his little outburst.

Now, all he had to do was get the kid to accept the suit as the gift it was intended to be.

Tony had a few ideas he thought might work.

Who was he kidding? He was a genius… of course his ideas would work.

Of course, he conveniently forgot that the kid really had no idea who he was and that he hadn't really been all that impressed with Tony (or the Iron Man Suit) upon first meeting him.

* * *

Deep within the forests of Albania, a black wraith transferred itself from a dying rat into the asp that had attacked his floundering half-dead rodent host.

Ten minutes later, the undead shade of Lord Voldemort was cursing the gods and Harry Potter as he once again crawled on his belly in the ancient forests. He'd been right on the cusp of regaining all that he'd lost the first time the wretched Potter brat had torn him from his body only for everything to be snatched away a second time by the same damn brat; including his reconstructed body. Voldemort seethed in helpless anger as the snake he was possessing slipped inside of a burrow to sleep off its recent meal.

Two days later, at the same time as Harry was waking up for the second time within the Stark Tower Infirmary, the Dark Lord possessed viper would be picked up by a middle aged man by the name of Lukas Zola (the grandson of Arnim Zola – one of HYDRA's leading scientists and the creator of HYDRA's advanced weapons technology). Like his grandfather before him, Lukas was a scientist. He was also a former employee of both A.I.M. and Hammer Industries and he'd stolen close to eight million dollars worth of equipment and components from both of his former employers before he left their employ; including the blueprints for numerous devices and machines.

The asp that Voldemort had hitched a ride in would soon find itself being fed regularly and milked for venom every two or three days (along with several other snakes, a few spiders, and some toads); Lukas was currently experimenting with different venoms in order to create different types of poisons and biological weapons that he planned to integrate into the Mark III Whiplash Suit that he'd created using the blueprints he'd stolen from Hammer Industries.

A suit that had originally been designed and created by Ivan Vanko during the Russian's brief stint as an employee of Hammer Industries.

A suit that Voldemort would eventually possess and take control of once he discovered that the small Arc Reactor that powered the suit (which was based off of Vanko's palladium reactor technology and not Stark's vibranium reactor) could sustain his wraith form indefinitely.

* * *

**Notes:**

A.I.M. – **A**dvanced **I**dea **M**echanics

* * *

**08-14-16:**_ Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes._


	4. The Truth Will Out

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 03: The Truth Will Out

_Sunday, April 19, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

Harry kept his eyes closed as consciousness returned to him once more; the fourteen year old taking careful stock of his current location before announcing his current awareness. He'd barely registered the fact that he was once again lying on the comfortable bed he'd first woken up on when his ruse was called out by Tony Stark.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty; you've slept long enough and I already know you're wide awake."

Harry reluctantly opened his eyes and pushed himself up as the man walked up to drop a breakfast tray on his lap. Harry stared at the plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast with confusion and trepidation; there was enough food on the tray to feed three people (or Ron) and he doubted he'd ever be able to eat it all. There was also a glass of orange juice and a mug of what he thought might be coffee.

"Well, what are you waiting for, kid? An engraved invitation? Because if you are, I can go make one for you…"

"That won't be necessary, sir," Harry quickly blurted out as he snagged a piece of bacon and took a bite; the crispy slice of meat turning to ash in his mouth as his thoughts immediately turned to Hedwig.

"That's better," Mr. Stark stated as he clapped his hands together. "Do you mind if we talk while you eat?"

"What about?" Harry asked cautiously after he chewed and swallowed another reluctant bite.

"Oh this and that and a few other things thrown in to boot," Mr. Stark replied as he dropped down into a chair beside the bed. "I also think we got off on the wrong foot the other day and I'd like to fix that if possible. We could maybe start with a mutual exchange of information. I could start by saying my full name is Anthony Edward Stark but prefer to be called Tony, I turned forty-five this year, and I have been called a genius, a billionaire, a playboy, a philanthropist, an inventor, and a mechanic. I have also been labeled as the Merchant of Death and the da Vinci of our time. What about you?"

Harry nibbled on a piece of toast as he warily eyed the man for a moment before he realized that he was going to have to cooperate with the man on some level if he ever wanted to get out of there based upon the expectant look that Mr. Stark was currently wearing.

Letting out a soft sigh, Harry grudgingly offered, "Harry James Potter, I am fourteen going on fifteen but that was back in nineteen-ninety-five, and I've been called an orphan, an unwanted burden, an ungrateful layabout, a lazy freak, a foolish Gryffindor, an attention seeking brat, a liar, a cheat, and a…" Harry cut himself off just before he said wizard and then quickly plowed on to cover up his hesitation. "I've also been called the Boy-Who-Lived, Gryffindor's Golden Boy, Slytherin's Heir, the Fourth Champion, and that Potter Brat."

Mr. Stark knowingly smirked over both the abrupt cut off and the quick cover up but the man thankfully didn't call the teen out on it. Instead, he continued on with whatever agenda he had in mind and Harry quickly got sidetracked from his worries about the man prying into things.

"Wow, that list was longer than mine. My parents' names were Howard and Maria Stark and they were both killed in a car accident when I was twenty-one. Obadiah Stane, who was my father's friend and business partner and the man that was my mentor after my father's death, sold the weapon's technology I had developed and my company manufactured to terrorist organizations, hired said terrorists to kill me, and later attempted to kill me himself after the terrorists failed. The public both adores me and hates me and until I met you I used to believe there wasn't a person alive who didn't know who I was."

Harry snorted in response to Mr. Stark's last sentence before he replied, "My parents were James and Lily Potter; they were murdered when I was a baby but until I turned eleven I'd been told that they had died in a car crash. My godfather was falsely imprisoned for twelve years before he broke out in an attempt to kill the one that had framed him. For the last four years, I've been adored and reviled in turns by an entire society. I've also nearly been killed over two dozen times in the last four years and spent almost as much time in the school's Hospital Wing as I did in classes."

"I guess that makes it my turn again," Mr. Stark mused once Harry trailed off again; the teen feeling a bit uncomfortable with just how much information he was giving the man but at the same time relieved to actually talk to someone who actually seemed to listen. "Let's see, my hobbies are collecting vintage sports cars, tinkering around in my lab, driving fast cars, flying, cracking jokes, and seducing women… not that you needed to know that last bit."

"I don't really have any hobbies, though I do love to fly. I never really collected anything either but I did have the world's best pet owl; she was both smart and beautiful. Hedwig loved bacon," Harry stated as ducked his chin to hide the tears shimmering in his eyes while he played with the last two pieces of bacon on his plate.

"You miss her."

"Yeah, she'd been my companion for four years. She was also my first ever birthday present; a gift from my first ever friend on my eleventh birthday."

"I imagine that you miss your friends as well."

"I guess… things were… difficult between us this past year."

"Why is that? You and your buddies all fall for the same girl or something?"

"No. I got entered into a stupid tournament the school hosted. I ended up being the unwanted fourth champion because the officials said I had no choice but to compete after being selected even though it was only supposed to be for those seventeen and older. Ron, who I had thought was my best mate, turned his back on me and accused me of lying about being entered against my will and everyone but Hermione turned on me again just like in my second year. I was nearly killed seven or eight times during all three tasks and then… and then I got caught in a stupid trap and dragged the other Hogwarts' champion to his death all because I suggested we both take the trophy. I as good as killed him."

"No, you didn't," Mr. Stark countered firmly. "You offered him a chance to share in the win and the two of you had to of both worked hard to earn that win and both of you had to have been close enough to claim it to be possible for the two of you to share it. Whoever it was that sprung the trap was the one that killed your friend; not you."

"It's still my fault… the trap was meant to catch me. If not for me, Cedric never would have been in danger that night."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do! Voldemort wanted me and only me! And because Cedric was there, he was killed. Voldemort told Pettigrew to kill the spare and I couldn't do anything to stop him!" Harry angrily insisted as he glared at Mr. Stark with glittering green eyes that shimmered with unshed tears. "People get hurt when they are near me. My parents, Ron, Hermione, the other students, Cedric…"

"Okay, stop right there. From what I understand, you were just a baby when your parents died; a baby is incapable of protecting itself let alone of causing the deaths of its parents. As for the tournament you were in; you are still a child, regardless of how old you are or how well you can take care of yourself, and the protection of you, your fellow students, and the other competitors rested solely with the staff and officials running your school and the tournament you were entered into. That they forced you to participate in the tournament despite the fact that you were under age was highly irresponsible of them."

"I didn't have a choice! It was either compete or lose my…"

"Lose your what…?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why…?"

"It's against the law for me to tell you."

"Whose law?"

"I don't know whose law it is, I only know that we all have to obey it or face the consequences. I don't want to be expelled and have my…" Harry began only to trail off when he recalled that he no longer had a wand to be snapped.

"Look, I don't know exactly what it is you're not supposed to talk about, but from what little I've heard, it sounds like you really need to talk to someone. You've been in a lot of dangerous situations from what you've told me so far and you were in critical condition when we found you. Whoever it is that made laws to prevent you from speaking of what has happened to you, is either looking to hide something illegal or is covering up something very, very dangerous. Secret societies are usually a whole bunch of trouble all the way around. I can't exactly help you fight against something I can't understand… I can guarantee that I will never repeat any of what I learn to anyone without your permission."

"You can't help me; you're just a muggle," Harry wearily muttered as he shoved the breakfast tray from his lap and pulled his legs up so that he could wrap his arms around his knees.

"You don't know that; I'm a genius, I can do almost anything once I put my mind to it. And, uh, what exactly is it that you called me?"

"A muggle."

"Uh-huh, and what exactly is a muggle supposed to be?"

"It's a person without…"

"Without what? Because I'm pretty certain that I have nearly one of everything somewhere. And if perchance I actually don't have it, I can buy it and have it before midnight tonight."

"Without magic," Harry whispered after a slight hesitation. "You aren't a wizard."

"Magic," Mr. Stark repeated slowly.

"Yes, magic; it really exists and so do trolls, giants, dragons, mermaids, unicorns, hippogriffs, pixies, fairies, phoenixes, and giant, three headed dogs."

"No, I believe you. I've had some experience with magic. I've also met a couple of gods, one of which was a sorcerer."

"You already know about magic then, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes, you could say that and you can call me Tony; you keep calling me Mr. Stark and I'm going to start looking around for Mr. Fury or the press; neither of which I really want to see right now."

"Oh, then I didn't actually break the law and they can't snap my wand and kick me out of Hogwarts now. Only… only I don't have a wand for them to snap any more."

"Why don't you have a wand?"

"It was destroyed; when Voldemort tried to kill me, my spell crashed into his and just before the giant troll showed up to smash the Dark Lord, my wand burned up in my hand."

"You did have a rather severe burn on your right hand when we found you. Since we've established that I already know all about magic, why don't you tell me all the things you've been holding back out of fear of breaking that so called law you mentioned?"

Harry assessed the man with a jaundiced eye for a long minute while he weighed the pros and cons of actually telling Mr. Stark anything else. In the end, he decided that it couldn't possibly make things any worse than they already were (what with him losing twenty years during his duel with Voldemort). And so he told Mr. Stark everything; how he'd survived the Killing Curse as a baby, how his aunt and uncle had tried to stamp the magic out of him, and how he'd known nothing of the wizarding world until Hagrid hunted him down on his eleventh birthday.

He then went on to tell the man about each of his four years at Hogwarts; giving detailed descriptions of the basic courses he was taking, of the trouble he'd gotten into, and of the adults he'd interacted with during those years. He also spoke at length about his treatment at the hands of the other students, his impressions of the staff and school rules, and his closest friends (which included Hagrid, Hedwig, Hermione, and the entire Weasley family). After that he spoke about his godfather, his experiences with the press, and the little bit he knew about his parents.

The last thing he spoke about was the Tri-Wizard Tournament, his selection as a champion, all four of the tasks he'd completed (which included the Yule Ball), and the events that had taken place in the graveyard. By the time he'd spoken again of the giant troll saving him (specifically mentioning the puny wizard comment that the troll had made before smashing Voldemort), his throat was aching from talking so much. He felt completely drained emotionally and mentally and at the same time, he felt so much lighter; as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He also couldn't help but wonder what the man thought of his story.

"Wow, it sounds like you've had one hell of an adventure," Mr. Stark commented as he sat back with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I don't think I ever got into quite that much trouble when I was your age."

"What's going to happen to me now?" Harry asked wearily as he fought to stay awake; who knew talking could be so exhausting?

"You'll stay here until J.A.R.V.I.S. and Dr. Banner pronounce you fully recovered. After that…? Well, I have a few ideas we can discuss once you're cleared to leave the infirmary. For now, you should probably get some rest; you look like you're about to fall asleep sitting up. If you need anything, just call out for J.A.R.V.I.S. and he'll see to it that you get what you need or notify me and I'll see to it you're taken care of."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to hand me off to the local authorities? I mean, it's not like you owe me anything. I'm just some kid you picked up off the street… or wherever it was that you found me. You've already done more than enough for me and I don't want to be a burden…"

"You became my responsibility the moment the Hulk rescued you," Mr. Stark cut in sternly. "It would be highly irresponsible of me to pass you off to someone else who is not your immediate guardian. In order for me to do that, I'm going to have to track down your relatives. And I seriously doubt you'd enjoy spending any time in the custody of the local law enforcement while they jumped through political red tape in order to get shipped back to England."

"But…"

"No buts. If you still feel uncomfortable, we can discuss it later. Right now, you need a nap."

"I'm almost fifteen; not five."

"Really? Are you sure? Cause, ya know, right now you're pouting like a five year old."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Oh, very mature… and for the record; are too!"

"At least I don't walk around wearing a portable toilet."

"What is it with you and insulting my suit? Do you have any idea of the sheer genius that it took to create the Iron Man Suit?"

"Too bad you used up all of that 'genius' creating the suit; otherwise you would have known how totally lame it is to admit that you actually pee in the suit. I'm mean, that's basically admitting that you pee your pants in the middle of a fight. And there's only two ways for people to take that; they'll either think you're age is catching up to you or they'll think you're easily scared."

"Okay, you win that round but don't think for a minute that I won't get you back," Mr. Stark replied after trying and failing to come up with a suitable retort. "For now, I'll let you get some rest."

Harry snickered softly to himself as the man left immediately after that. His amusement faded fairly quickly after that as he considered just how much he'd told Mr. Stark. Part of him wondered just how much trouble he'd be in for talking about the wizarding world to a muggle but he couldn't muster up the effort to really care. He had far more important things to worry about; such as what he was going to do once he got home. If, that was, he even had a home to go back to.

Flopping back on the bed with a heavy sigh, Harry draped an arm over his eyes and tried to ignore the sudden churning of his stomach due to the dark turn his thoughts had taken. It hadn't exactly escaped him that he'd been in the hands of Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner for weeks and there had been no signs that anyone had bothered trying to find him. Of course, that was probably due to the fact that he had been dumped twenty years into the future.

Still, he'd have thought the magical side of the American government would have been all over his case due to the large outburst of accidental magic he'd released the other day. Then again, for all he knew, they could have been by that same night and he had just been too out of it to notice. That or his little outburst the other night just hadn't been significant enough to draw their attention; the United States was far larger than the United Kingdom and their population was considerably larger too.

On top of that, he recalled Hermione mentioning something about their magical government being far less centralized due to how widespread their magical population was when compared to the magical population of the British Isles. So, it was entirely possible that he'd somehow managed to end up in an area that was outside of the American wizarding government's jurisdiction. He just didn't know if that was a good thing or a very, very bad thing. With his luck, it could really go either way at this point.

Harry would eventually drift off into a trouble sleep while thinking about his predicament; his subconsciousness filling his dreams with all kinds of terrible scenarios that his uncertain future might now hold for him.

He would wake up shortly after one in the afternoon to find himself in the company of a rather nervous Dr. Banner. The moment the doctor noticed that he was awake the man passed Harry a tray holding a plate of sandwiches, a bag of crisps, and two cans of cola. The teen eyed the proffered meal with a detached air for a long moment as he tried to determine whether or not he was actually hungry before he hesitantly picked up a sandwich and took a small bite. He wasn't really all that hungry but knew it would be rude to turn his nose up at the food after Dr. Banner had gone through the effort of bringing him lunch.

"Can we talk while you eat?" Dr. Banner asked in a voice that was filled with the forced casualness that is often heard from adults when they are forced to discuss potentially embarrassing or difficult topics with children.

"What about…?" Harry asked warily in reply after he had swallowed what was in his mouth; his earlier conversation slash confession with Mr. Stark still rather fresh in his mind.

"Your friend; the big green guy."

"Did you let him out or are you still keeping him caged up?"

"Please calm down, Harry; I will try to explain exactly who and what the Other Guy is but I need you to remain calm lest you exhaust yourself in anger again," Dr. Banner replied with a trace of urgency. Harry scowled at the man but made no attempt to yell at the man. Once he was certain that Harry would cooperate, he stated, "Thank you. The first thing you need to know about the Other Guy, whom others refer to as the Hulk, is that he is the alter ego of another. He is, in fact, my alter ego."

Harry froze in mid-bite to stare at Dr. Banner in shock; the man had just claimed that he was a were-troll. A frown pulled the corners of his mouth down a moment later as he tried (and failed) to see any traces of the 'green guy' in the man's face; his memories from the night of his rescue too fuzzy and faded for him to clearly recall what the troll had looked like.

"I understand that it might be a bit difficult for you to accept my word for that since you don't really know me but please hear me out before you dismiss my words entirely. My story actually starts with my father; Dr. Brian Banner. My father was an atomic physicist who worked for the United States Army and during his experiments he was repeatedly exposed to trace amounts of radiation that altered his D.N.A. on a molecular level. He passed on those genetic mutations to me; something that frightened and angered my father."

"My mother tried to protect me from my father's anger and he accidentally killed her in his rage when she'd finally grown sick of his abuse and attempted to leave him. I won't bore you with any more details of my childhood; it's not really all that important. I will say that I had a lot of trouble with bullies and repressed a lot of anger. My intelligence eventually caught the attention of the military and they helped me earn my doctorate in Nuclear Physics and a degree in Genetics."

"In nineteen-ninety-six, I was testing a gamma bomb that I had helped to design and create. During the count down, I had discovered that a teenager had foolishly wandered onto the testing site. I ordered my colleague to stop the test and hurried out of the bomb shelter to get the teen off the field. Something went wrong and the test commenced as scheduled; I was hit by the gamma blast generated by the explosion after I'd shoved the teen into a ditch. That radiation triggered the mutated genes that I had inherited from my father and ever since then, the Other Guy has been a part of me."

"My transformation is not linked to the lunar cycle though; it is linked to my heart rate and emotions. When I am angry, or if my heart beat exceeds a certain number of beats per minute, I transform into the Other Guy. I will also transform if my life is in danger. On the night the Hulk found you, I had been talking an evening walk in London when something triggered my transformation without any warning. The Other Guy then went hunting for the threat it had felt and in the process of eliminating said threat, saved you," Dr. Banner finished several minutes later.

Harry was practically gaping at the man by the time he finished his story. It all sounded far too bizarre to be true and yet Harry didn't think the man was actually lying to him. After a few minutes, Harry snorted softly; the strangeness of actually finding a living were-troll was no weirder than some of the trouble he'd gotten up to at Hogwarts during the four years he'd attended the magical school.

"I can't risk transforming inside the infirmary, since the Hulk is far too large and dangerous, but I can show you a video that Tony took of my transformation if you'd like to see proof," Dr. Banner offered a moment later.

The moment Harry showed interest in said video, Dr. Banner activated a large wall screen that was embedded in the wall opposite of the bed Harry was seated in. Two seconds later, Harry watched wide-eyed as the image of Dr. Banner on the screen transformed into the giant, green Hulk in slow motion. Unlike Remus's transition from wizard to werewolf, Dr. Banner's transformation from man to were-troll didn't appear to cause the man any pain. In fact, Harry would even go so far as to say that the Hulk's transformation looked far more natural than Remus's transformation.

Not long after he'd watched the video (and accepted that Dr. Banner had been telling the truth), Harry thanked the man for saving him from Voldemort. He was then left alone with his thoughts for the rest of the day. The wizard would spend that time cat napping and picking at the food he'd been given as he tried to make sense of the world in which he'd woken up in. Mr. Stark would make a second appearance around supper time with a tray of fresh food and several questions about Harry's past (which he hesitantly answered). After Mr. Stark left, Harry would sleep for the rest of the night and dream of were-trolls and iron robots that doubled as portable toilets.

The next three days would pass in a similar vein; though the topics discussed with the two men varied each time he saw them. Over the course of those conversations, Harry slowly found himself growing comfortable around both men. He still didn't really trust them all that much but he no longer feared them. He was slightly annoyed that they refused to let him leave but he grudgingly accepted the fact that he was in no way prepared to take care of himself in the present day society into which he'd been thrust so unexpectedly.

Harry's routine would change rather unexpectedly on his fifth day awake when Mr. Stark swept into the room without food for once and promptly declared, "You've been in bed long enough, lazy bones; time for you to get up, get dressed, and exercise those skinny legs of yours while I give you a little tour before I take you down to my lab to show you a little surprise I made for you."

"I don't know where my clothes are…"

"I tossed them out; they were ruined beyond repair. I had Happy pick you up a few things though; some jeans, a few t-shirts, a pack of underwear and another of socks, and a pair of tennis shoes. He put them in the bathroom while you were sleeping last night. Feel free to take a shower while you're at it, if you want."

Harry blinked at the man before he slid out of bed and padded into the bathroom where he found a bag of clothes and a box of shoes sitting on the counter. After a brief hesitation, he picked out a pair of underwear, a random shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of socks to wear before he pulled off the thin cotton pants he'd been wearing. He then happily jumped into the shower and spent ten minutes scrubbing himself clean before he got out and dried himself off. Harry would spend another minute staring at his reflection; his eyes lingering on the now faded and barely there lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Realizing he was wasting time (and keeping Mr. Stark waiting), Harry quickly pulled his eyes away from the mirror and hurriedly dressed in his chosen clothes (which felt uncomfortably tight due to the fact that they actually fit him). He then made an attempt to tame his hair before he gave it up as a lost cause and exited the bathroom. Back in the Infirmary, the teen found Mr. Stark waiting by the door for him.

"Come on, Merlin," Mr. Stark instructed as he waved Harry through the door.

Harry winced at the nickname, "Please don't call me that… it's disrespectful and it implies I'm far more powerful than I am. It also makes me seem arrogant."

"Ah, didn't think it would be that big of a deal if I called you the name of a mythical figure… I don't suppose you'd mind if I called you Gandalf instead?"

"Merlin is actually a historical figure, not a mythical one. Who's Gandalf?"

"Who's Gandalf? Who's Gandalf? He's only the greatest fictional wizard ever created! Haven't you ever read the great works of J.R.R. Tolkien?"

"Err, no, I wasn't allowed to read fiction or fantasy growing up and well, there was no point in reading about fictional magic at Hogwarts because we were too busy learning the real thing."

"Well, I guess that means that I get to educate you on all things pop-culture in addition to teaching you the ins and outs of all the wonderful gadgets and gizmos a boy your age needs."

"Err, magic and technology doesn't mix."

"Au contraire, mon frère," Mr. Stark countered with a wag of his finger and led Harry into a lift. "Your magic works exceptionally well with my technology. I should know; I spent the last few weeks running all kinds of tests."

"You experimented on me?" Harry demanded as he stopped in his tracks half in and half out of the lift.

"No, no, absolutely not, I would never experiment on you or anyone else; at least, not without their explicit permission," Mr. Stark denied as he reached out and pulled Harry all the way inside of the lift before he got pinched between the closing doors.

"I did however, study the power your body produces and run a few tests on the blood we drew from you when we were patching you up after you blew the lights in the Infirmary and shut down everything electrical within ten miles of Stark Tower the first time you woke. And that was only because I needed to make certain your little outburst wasn't going to cause me problems at some point in the future. Turns out the energy you call your magic is comparable to the energy my Arc Reactors create; meaning that all of my Arc Reactor technology is compatible with your magic."

"Really? So, you've basically created a way to synthesize magic?"

"That or your body produces a rare form of pure energy that could power an entire city for ten lifetimes."

"Of all the names I've been called over the years, I think this is the first time anyone has ever called me a living battery."

"Well, there is a first time for everything. A word of advice though, kid; I'd be very cautious about whom you tell about your status as a walking generator; there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there that would seek to exploit you or experiment on you."

"That's something all magicals fear and why there are laws against us telling muggles about the magical world except in certain situations; like if a non-magical couple have a witch or wizard for a child. We don't want to be hunted again and we don't want to be forced to solve everyone's problems just because we have magic."

"That almost makes sense," Mr. Stark mused before he clapped his hands together and stepped out of the lift as the doors slid open without warning. "Anyway, I'm supposed to be giving you a guided tour here, not getting into a philosophical debate on the merits of hiding an entire society from the rest of the world. This here is the top floor of Stark Tower; which is my personal penthouse that I share with my girlfriend Pepper Potts, Dr. Banner, Steve Rogers, and occasionally the Norse God of Thunder, Thor. Thor isn't here right now though; he took Loki home to be punished after his brother attempted to take over Earth with an army of exceptionally ugly alien bug things a little over a year ago and hasn't been back since."

"You've met Thor and Loki?" Harry asked incredulously as they passed through the kitchen where Mr. Stark grabbed a couple of breakfast pastries that he unceremoniously shoved into Harry's hands.

"In the flesh, though I wasn't really impressed with Loki; he was a real jerk with a larger ego than me. He had some major daddy issues too. How is it that you know of Thor and Loki but you didn't know of me?"

"Well, they're gods; we learned about them in history class. We also studied the Greek, Roman, and Celtic gods and goddesses when we weren't studying the goblin and giant wars."

"Of course a magical school would teach you all about the gods and goddesses of old. You do know that the Norse gods and goddesses were all actually an advanced race of beings from another planet, right?"

"No, that I didn't know that but I did know that a lot of the gods and goddesses mentioned in myths and legends were actually witches and wizards that set themselves up as gods and goddesses. So, an alien culture doing the same thing doesn't really seem all that far fetched."

"That's one way to look at it. Come on, I have something for you in my lab," Mr. Stark stated as he draped an arm over Harry's shoulders and guided Harry back towards the elevator. "After all of the tests and experiments I ran using your blood, I built a few things I just know you're going to like."

Harry tensed in response to the arm across his shoulders and he couldn't help the knot of dread that filled his stomach at the thought that the man was dragging him off to a lab. He was certain that he was going to end up strapped to the lab table regardless of what the man had said about never experimenting on him. He remained tense all through the short ride in the lift and he actually flinched when the doors opened into a short antechamber that looked like something right out of a science fiction movie set with its stark and sleek metal walls, glowing security panel, and the distinct absence of an actual door.

Mr. Stark guided him out of the elevator a split second later; the man apparently oblivious to Harry's current discomfort. The man entered a code into the security panel and with a whoosh, the wall directly in front of them parted, and then Mr. Stark was all but pushing Harry into the lab. Harry swallowed thickly as his eyes darted over the high-tech mechanics lab that was revealed in search of the feared lab table that he half believed he'd wind up on. He'd barely searched half of the room before Mr. Stark was pulling him over to the other side of the room where a smaller, silver version of the man's metal suit stood beside a bare table with only a couple of items on it.

"Well, what do you think?" Mr. Stark inquired as he gestured to the shrunken suit.

"Um… it looks like you shrank and stripped the paint from your suit, Mr. Stark; maybe you shouldn't have washed it in hot water?"

"Ha-ha, cute, kid, real cute. I thought I asked you not to call me Mr. Stark."

"Well, I asked you not to call me kid, so that makes us even, right?"

"I suppose it does, Gandalf. Now, seriously, what do you think of your suit? This is just the prototype but the final product won't be much different aside from the final paint job; which you can help me design."

"My…? What do you mean my suit?"

"I built the Mark XIII for you, Gandalf."

"Wait, what? I can't take that. You can't give me that… it must be worth several million quid!"

"Eight point nine million dollars, actually, give or take a couple hundred thousand," Mr. Stark replied as he let go of Harry and approached the table beside the mini-suit. "This suit contains all of the latest and greatest Iron Man upgrades; designed, manufactured, and extensively tested by yours truly. Well, it is distinctly lacking in weapons technology but it would have been just a little irresponsible of me to equip a fourteen year old with lasers, heat seeking missiles, and other weapons of mass destruction."

"I don't even know if I could afford to pay you back for something like that!"

"You don't have to pay me back, kiddo; it's a gift from me to you."

"A gift…? But that doesn't make any sense! You don't even know me! Why would you…?"

"I saw the condition you were in when Bruce first woke up and discovered that his alter ego had kidnapped you or rather, rescued you from the whack-job that had worked you over something good. Even before you told me about all of your adventures, I knew you'd been in some serious trouble for some reason or another. I also know that there is no where on this planet that you will be safe from those that would wish to exploit you for what your blood holds. That energy inside of you, your magic, is like liquid gold, buddy; and I wanted to make certain you had a means of escape if someone tried to corner and capture you."

"But…"

"Look, Harry, if the cost of the technology bothers you that much, you can pay me back by working for me," Mr. Stark interrupted before Harry could even finish forming his next protest. "I'll hire you as an intern and you can help me research and create a line of video games or something equally as harmless; say a five year contract and at the end of those five years the suit is yours."

"But I don't know anything about how to make computer games; I've never even played one! I don't even know how to use a computer! I don't even know what half of the stuff you have in this lab is for! I'm not a genius, like you. I'm not even super smart like Hermione."

"I think you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for, kiddo; you've just rarely ever had the opportunity to let your intelligence shine. As for your lack of technological know how, I'll buy you some manuals, a few gaming consoles, and a laptop for you to learn on. In fact, you're the perfect intern as you are now because you won't be coming into the project with any preconceived notions on what a video game is supposed to do and that means you won't generate any knock off ideas that would make Stark Games bomb out big time. And your imagination is filled with life-like images of all the good fantasy stuff like magic, wizards, and dragons."

"But…"

"Look, you don't have to decide right this second; you've got more than enough time to think about it, Gandalf. In the mean time, you've got a suit to test drive. You said you like to fly, right? Well, this baby is far better than any flying twig. You can fly far higher and far faster than you ever dreamed you could with this suit. What do you say; feel like taking it for a spin?"

"It flies…?" Harry asked as he bit his lip and moved closer to inspect the shrunken suit; the wizard abandoning his uneaten pastries on the nearest bench in order to free up his hands.

"Like a dream."

"How fast…? My Firebolt can go from zero to one hundred fifty miles per hour in three seconds flat."

"The Mark XIII can hit mach one in three seconds flat; that's seven hundred sixty-one miles per hour _on slow_, buddy. This suit was designed to withstand hypersonic speeds; meaning you could travel around the circumference of the world in less than two hours if you wanted to."

"Really…?"

"Truly," Mr. Stark replied with a laugh. "So, you interested in taking this baby for a spin?"

"Oh hell yeah," Harry breathed before common sense reasserted itself. "But I probably shouldn't. I mean, it's worth a lot of money and I wouldn't want to break it. I don't even know how to put it on let alone walk or fly in it."

"This is just the prototype, it was meant to be broken so that the last of the bugs can be worked out before I build you the actual suit. I mean, I've tested it extensively but you might still find something I missed since I'm not you. As far as not knowing how to activate and maneuver the suit; that's why I'm here. I'm the expert on all things Iron Man, after all. So get your scrawny behind over here and let me start teaching you the basics, squirt; the sooner you learn how to operate the suit, the sooner you can take it on a brief tour of the world."

"Okay," Harry agreed as he hurried over to where Mr. Stark was standing beside the table; the prospect of flying burying all of his insecurities and doubts he'd had about accepting such an expensive gift.

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**Translations:** French to English

Au contraire, mon frère – on the contrary, my friend (or my brother)

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**08-14-16:**_ Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes._


	5. Technological Cram Session

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter 04: Technological Cram Session

_Thursday, April 23, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

If Harry had known just what he was getting into by agreeing to allow Tony to teach him how to use the mini Iron Man suit, he might have run away screaming instead. As it was, Harry spent six hours in the lab that first day just learning how to remotely control the suit through the high tech wrist watch that Tony had built for him. He'd also been taught all of the other basic functions of the watch; like how to pull up his exact location via the GPS function, how to switch between the date, time, and temperature functions, and how to work the Wi-Fi link and holographic display.

He would have spent another six hours in the lab learning how to use the suit's internal systems (such as learning how to read the status displays) if not for Dr. Banner hunting the two of them down two hours after they'd missed lunch (on top of Harry missing breakfast – he hadn't actually taken a bite of either breakfast pastry he'd been given). The doctor had scolded Tony for nearly an hour after he'd learned that Tony was teaching Harry how to use the Iron Man suit before he dragged Harry out of the lab to feed him.

Tony had followed along and sulked during the entire meal; an act that had made Harry snicker because the man acted more like a big kid than an adult at times. After the meal, Tony dragged Harry off for a Lord of the Rings marathon with popcorn, pizza, and soda galore and Tony fast forwarding through what he termed the 'boring' parts of the movies in order to get through all three of them in one sitting. Harry was utterly fascinated by the special effects in all three movies even if he found the parallels between Sauron and Voldemort more than a little disturbing.

Over all, it was the most fun Harry had had since his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire.

Bright and early the next morning, the teenaged wizard would find himself back down in Tony's lab with the helmet of the mini Iron Man suit on his head as the man taught him how to read the displays and activate the different internal systems after formally introducing Harry to J.A.R.V.I.S. – Tony's advanced A.I. system. Much to Harry's surprise, he found it relatively easy to learn how to interact with the different suit systems. He even found it easy to keep up with Tony's tech talk once he'd learned the basic jargon. In fact, the more he learned, the easier it was for him to puzzle things out on his own; which sort of felt a little odd since he was so used to struggling with the theory side of things.

There were several factors involved in the newfound ease Harry found in learning. First, the 'gunk' that had been hidden in his scar had, in addition to pressing down on his optical nerves, had placed pressure on his brain as the foul substance had been housed beneath his skull behind the lightning bolt scar that had been carved into his very skull. The second factor was directly related to the first factor in that Harry's magic had been forced to contain the 'gunk' so that it didn't sink into his brain _and_ prevent the pressure the substance created in his skull from permanently damaging his brain.

Third, there were very few distractions present and his lessons were administered one-on-one with his teacher devoting almost his entire attention focused entirely on Harry. Fourth, an adult figure that currently held a measure of authority over Harry (limited though that authority was) was actively encouraging Harry to do his best. Fifth, all of Harry's current lessons were mostly practical lessons as opposed to being heavy on book learning. Sixth, Tony's easy going attitude and his tendency to joke about anything and everything (including the fact that Harry had never kissed a girl) made the time that Harry spent in the lab learning his way about the Iron Man suit fun.

And the last and most important factor of all was the fact that everything Harry was learning was geared towards something Harry wanted; flight.

Harry wasn't really aware of those factors though and aside from noting how easy he found learning the things that Tony taught him, he didn't really care that something had changed; simply because, for once, the change had been positive in nature rather than negative like most changes were in his experience.

The billionaire was just having Harry test the Hand Repulsors (so Harry could learn how to compensate for the recoil caused by the 'blasts' of energy the Repulsors emitted) when Dr. Banner joined them in the lab once more; the man bringing their food to them this time instead of trying to drag them out of the lab for the meal. Harry was more than a little surprised when Dr. Banner didn't make another attempt to argue with Tony about Harry having his own personal Iron Man suit during the meal.

He was further surprised when Dr. Banner suggested incorporating a biotech security protocol to prevent someone from stealing and using Harry's suit. Tony took the suggestion and flew with it while leaving Dr. Banner to give Harry a basic run down on exactly what biotech security entailed and how it would function with the suit. That, of course, involved a rather watered down lesson on basic genetics, including a quick look at D.N.A. sequencing and how D.N.A. sequencing could be used to identify individuals using Harry's D.N.A. as an example.

Supper on that second night involved another movie marathon; this time they watched Matrix, Tron, and Total Recall as Tony looked to expand on Harry's understanding of advanced technology and give him an idea of just what could be accomplished with the right tools and a little imagination. That was also the night that Harry accepted Tony's offer of an internship with the genius; mere magic paling significantly in the face of what could be done with technology in the teen's mind. He had no plans to create video games though; no, Harry wished to design things like affordable flying vehicles (motorcycles, cars, or buses) and interactive robotic pets that could double as temporary babysitters for young children or protective guards with emergency protocols for the elderly.

Harry woke up bright and early without any prompting the next morning; eager to get back to his lessons and to tell Tony all about the ideas he'd come up with after he'd gone to bed. He dressed in record time and sprinted out to the kitchen expecting to find Tony sitting at the counter waiting for him like he had been the previous morning. He hadn't even made it past the living room when he heard Tony's voice calling for him. Curious as to why Tony was in the living room instead of the kitchen as expected, Harry skidded to a stop and hurried back to the living room.

"We need to talk, kiddo," Tony stated as he slapped his hand on the leather couch in a silent request for Harry to join him on the couch. "I ran into a bit of a problem when I was setting up the paperwork for your internship last night."

"What kind of a problem…?" Harry warily asked as his stomach knotted up with worry over the fact that it looked like his recent lucky break was going to blow up in his face.

"You technically don't exist and neither does any one else whose name you'd given to me the other day when you told me your life's story. I believe you told me the truth and I'm pretty certain you're not delusional; your story was far too intricate to be completely made up, after all, but there is not a single record for any of the witches, wizards, or muggles (as you called us non-magical folk) you knew anywhere to be found. J.A.R.V.I.S. has also been scanning the entire globe for any evidence of a hidden secret society based off of the energy signature you emit and there is nothing out there, buddy."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"Well, it could mean one of several things. It could mean that your society of magic users is far better hidden from the rest of the world than I thought possible. Or, it could mean that whatever happened the night you faced that Volderot dude destroyed your society in the backlash. It could also mean than your entire life was nothing but an elaborate hoax created by some mad-scientist that was harnessing your internal power or experimenting with your healing abilities until you managed to escape. I suppose it could also mean that you're actually an alien from another world and you were thrown here by some cataclysmic event. Personally, I think it more likely that you're from some alternate dimension because you are undoubtedly human; no extra hearts or tails to be found."

"But… but… what would any of that mean for me!?"

"To start, it means it's going to be a bit harder to try and track down any of your old pals or your former guardians; if you wanted to, that is. I suppose it could also mean that you have a real chance to make a fresh start here, without any of your past coming back to haunt you."

"It would also mean that I abandoned my friends and my world or worse, helped Voldemort kill them all," Harry quietly pointed out as he pulled up his legs and hugged his knees to his chest as he tried not to panic in response to the sudden revelation that everyone he knew had possibly died. "And it would mean that I'd forever be alone because I'd be the only wizard here on earth… or on this earth."

"Well, at least until you settled down with a girl and starting making your own personal army of little witches and wizards."

"Not funny, Tony."

"Don't tell me that you're still in the 'all girls are icky stage', Gandalf; I don't think my heart could take the shock."

"Of course it could; you'd just have to reboot it and you'd be off and running again," Harry shot back with a snort as he recalled the explanation he'd been given after the first time he'd seen the Arc Reactor that sat in the middle of Tony's chest glowing through the black shirt he was wearing at the time.

"You're turning out to be a real cheeky brat."

"And you're a grody old man."

"Hey now, there's no need to be insulting. I'm neither grody nor old," Tony indignantly retorted.

"You told me that you peed in your Iron Man suit; it doesn't get any grodier than that."

"Okay, I won't argue with you on that point but I'll have you know that all of my latest Iron Man suit models have excellent filtration systems that take the grodiness out of peeing inside of the suit."

"You actually saying that out loud only makes it worse, Tony."

"How did we get on the subject of me peeing in my suit? We were supposed to be talking about your options, buddy; not my bodily functions."

"You were the one that started talking about how I could create my own army of magical soldiers."

"Oh, right; I forgot about that because you distracted me."

"You mean you distracted yourself."

"Maybe but you really need to stop changing the subject, Gandalf."

"I'm not the one switching topics."

"You're not doing much to help me stay on topic either. So, my little Iron Wizard, what did you want to do about the distinct lack of personal records and magical signatures?"

"I don't know… maybe I could go look for them? I mean, maybe because you don't have magic, you can't actually locate places like Diagon Alley or Hogwarts with technology. I just can't imagine them disappearing; Hogwarts had been there for at least a thousand years when I first started… that has to mean something, right?"

"So, a world tour would be at the top of your To-Do List; or at least a tour of the United Kingdom and the British Isles. What will you do after that? Whether or not you find the wizarding society; what will you do once you've finished searching all of the potential places you believe they might be hiding?"

"Well, if I don't really exist here and now, does that mean I can't work for you?"

"It doesn't matter whether you officially exist or not, Harry; I already promised you an internship and I never break my promises – at least not intentionally since there are times when extenuating circumstances that I have no control over happen despite my best intentions. It'll just take a bit more work on my part to set you up with a proper identity and back story for when S.H.I.E.L.D. comes sniffing around looking to find out who you are and why you're working with me. Do you think you'd still want to work for me though? I mean, wouldn't you rather try and find a way back if this isn't your time or your proper world?"

"I don't know. I mean I'd want to see my friends again and save them if I could but I don't know if I could go back to being just a wizard after everything you've taught me about technology. I don't want to go back to being famous just because I didn't die alongside my parents. I also don't want my life to be dictated for me by others; which is how it felt to me sometimes. I just want to be myself for once and not worry about being shunned and ridiculed for it."

"Does that mean you still plan to take me up on that internship?"

"Yeah, I'd kind of like to build motorcycles that fly and make mechanical dogs that can save drowning kids or robotic cats that can call the emergency services if their owner has a heart attack or something."

"What? No video games?"

"Nah, I just don't think I'd ever like to sit in front of a television rotting my brain with silly games when I can share the wonder of flying with others. And I know there're a lot of people out there that would love to have a pet but they can't keep them where they live, their parents don't want to deal with the work of keeping a pet, or they're allergic to them or something. I could even make tiny replicas of dragons, unicorns, and other magical creatures for people to have as pets."

"You really like flying, don't you?"

"Well, yeah; the only time I ever truly been free was when I was flying. Once I'm in the sky, there's nothing but me, my broom, the endless sky, and the constant fight against gravity. I really can't wait until you let me out to fly in the suit… it's been months since the last time I was on my broom."

"You know what that means, right?"

"Time to hit the lab?"

"Bingo! Let's go get you suited up for the next round of testing."

Harry laughed as the two of them raced to the elevator in excitement only to find the elevator already occupied by a pissed off strawberry blonde. Harry quickly backpedaled and half hid behind Tony while the man lifted his hands in a placating gesture as he eyed the irate woman that was currently glaring at him.

"Where the hell have you been, Tony? I've been trying to get in touch with you for three days!"

"Hey, I've been right here and I've been a little busy working."

"Working? No you weren't; you were playing. You've missed two important board meetings, skipped out on a press conference, and ignored at least twenty e-mails from potential high profile clients that were looking to incorporate Stark Technology into their businesses. We've lost at least three huge potential contracts because you've been hiding out here playing around. And… why is there a little kid cowering behind you?"

"I'm not cowering, I'm just staying out of the line of fire," Harry indignantly pointed out in response to the woman calling him a coward in a round about way. "And I'm not little! I'm fourteen years old, you know, and I'm expecting to have a growth spurt any day now."

"Tony…?"

"Ah, well, you remember how you've been on my case about getting an intern or two for the last fifteen months or so? Well, I finally got around to finding one that I can tolerate. Pepper, allow me to introduce you to Harry Potter; my new intern. Intern, this is my lovely girlfriend and the world's best personal assistant; Virginia Potts, but everyone calls her Pepper."

"Tony, he's under age…"

"He's emancipated; his former guardians were arrested for child neglect and child exploitation. He's a regular genius, just like yours truly. He's already started working with me to develop a line of motorcycle engines that will run on clean energy. The initial designs are based off of the Iron Man technology and Harry is currently tasked with finding ways to reduce production costs without sacrificing quality so that the final product will be both up to Stark Standards and affordable for the average Joe once they hit the market."

"Really and just how do you intend to do that, Mr. Potter?"

"Well, it would not be feasible to mass produce the portable Arc Reactors on a scale large enough to serve the public so we'd actually need to create an engine that could run off of a rechargeable vibranium based battery that would take the place of the standard combustion engine. At the same time, a lighter frame would reduce the amount of energy output required to move the motorcycle; allowing for longer battery life. Using the basic components of the armor from the Iron Man Suit as the framework for the new motorcycle would mean that we aren't sacrificing safety for speed since the Iron Man armor is generally far more durable than most motorcycle frames."

"You mean you actually are working on creating a new line of motors?" Pepper asked incredulously. "You didn't just pull that idea out of a hat to mislead me about what the two of you are actually doing in the lab?"

"No, I didn't pull that idea out of a hat; Harry did. It was one of two concepts he put forward that drew my interest and made me choose him out of all the other potential interns I met with."

"What was the other idea?"

"Robotic pets designed to not only be a non-living substitute for those who wish to have companionship but don't wish to deal with the work involved in taking care of a real animal but which can actively help their owners. Harry had also suggested having Wi-Fi and built-in cell phone capabilities so that the automated creations could contact emergency services in the event their owner needed immediate medical attention."

"Why did you choose to start with the engines and not the robotic pets?"

"The pets are going to take a lot more work get right because they are going to be more than simple toys," Harry replied with a shrug of his shoulder. "I want them to move and behave realistically too, in order to make them more appealing to the public. That means incorporating the fluid joint system that Mr. Stark employs in the Iron Man suits to enhance his maneuverability while wearing the suit. Mr. Stark has graciously agreed to allow me to study the basic mechanics of the Iron Man suit to that end; after I signed a non-disclosure agreement."

"I'm impressed; you've even somehow managed to get my boyfriend and boss to follow the proper protocols," Pepper laughed as she gave Harry an honest smile as she finally moved out of the way and allowed the two males to enter the lift. "Welcome to Stark Industries, Mr. Potter. Please don't hesitate to come to me if you have any questions that Tony can't answer."

"Thank you, Ms. Potts."

"Tony, we still need to talk."

"Of course, Pepper; just let me get Harry set up in the lab so he can get back to work."

"I'll give you ten minutes and then I will come down to your lab and drag you out by your ear."

"She's such a kidder sometimes," Tony stated with a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You should try saying that with more conviction if you want people to believe it," Harry quipped under his breath as he smiled and waved at the woman as the lift doors closed on Harry and Tony. Once the doors were closed, Harry turned to the man and stated, "She's going to roast you over an open flame."

"Yep."

"She's going to make you tell her the truth about me too, isn't she?" Harry quietly asked as the elevator doors slid back open with a soft ding as it reached the lab floor less than two minutes later.

"She will demand the truth but I won't tell her anything you don't want me to. And for the record, everything we did tell her was the truth; it just wasn't the complete truth. Well, except for the non-disclosure agreement that I supposedly had you sign and your status as an emancipated minor but both of those things can be quickly remedied with a few simple keystrokes and a little intervention a la J.A.R.V.I.S. style," Tony countered as he unlocked the lab and ushered Harry inside.

"I don't want to be the reason that your girlfriend is angry with you."

"You aren't and you won't be. Now, let's get you set up at a workstation and download you a couple of motorcycle manuals so you can start learning the ins and outs of motorcycle mechanics and motors. Once I've finished calming Pepper down and dealing with all of the work she most likely brought with her, I will be back so we can commence with the next test. If you finish or get bored before I return, feel free to browse the internet for more ideas or ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to pull something up for you to study. Oh, and I'll have J.A.R.V.I.S. print you out a copy of your internship contract and the non-disclosure agreement that you'll need to sign to make your internship official."

"Alright, Tony."

"One last thing before I leave you; is there anything you'd rather I not tell Pepper about you?"

"Could you maybe, I don't know, avoid mentioning the whole magic thing…?"

"I can do that, Gandalf. Anything else?"

"No, I think that would cover the important stuff since I'd just rather not have a bunch of people know about me being a walking generator or about the thing with my blood being a big deal and both of those things are pretty much directly related to me being a wizard."

"Got it; I'll see you in about an hour or two, then. Oh, and don't touch anything that's lying about. I normally wouldn't leave you alone in here but I'm going to make an exception just this once; so don't make me regret it."

Harry nodded even as he turned to the laptop Tony had set up for him and expanded the holographic display so that he could clearly see both the text and related images. He would then spend the next four hours skimming through a bunch of motorcycle manuals, motorcycle engine manuals, a handful of other mechanical and technological manuals, and assorted blueprints for modern day auto batteries that J.A.R.V.I.S. had deemed necessary for him to have. Once he'd read those, he began actually working on modifying a holographic image of a motorcycle engine; referring back to the various manuals whenever he got stuck.

It was lunchtime by the time Tony returned (with food), not that Harry had even noticed the passing time. In fact, the teen nearly jumped out of his skin when Tony walked up and dropped a hand on his shoulder as he stepped up to take a peek at Harry's work. The man didn't apologize for being late but Harry didn't really need the apology; he hadn't even noticed the passing time. Instead, Tony critiqued the work he'd done on the engine (adding a few compliments in there as well for his first attempt) and suggested a few other manuals that he might wish to read before he did anything further with the engine model he'd been recreating.

The entire project was then saved and put away so that Harry could eat his lunch before donning the mini-suit for his next lesson while J.A.R.V.I.S. downloaded the additional manuals that Tony had determined Harry would need to the laptop that Harry had been loaned. The entire afternoon would then be spent putting on and taking off the suit, walking around in the suit, and hovering in just the boots and gauntlets as Tony taught him how to fly the suit. The entire time they worked, Tony grilled Harry on the initial design of the new motor and tested his grasp of the basic mechanics of a motorcycle.

As they put away the suit and cleaned up the lab at five-thirty, Tony announced that Harry was ready for a test flight and that he'd take him out first thing the next morning. Harry was so excited about his pending first flight that he didn't even mind when the movie selection for the night involved a pair of what Tony called chick-flicks (What Women Want and The Wedding Planner) that Pepper had chosen. Harry would end up falling asleep camped out on the floor halfway through the second movie (much to Tony's amusement).

Harry would be up and ready to go well before dawn the next morning; his excitement at the prospect of being in the air again making it impossible for him to sleep any longer.

* * *

**AN:** _This chapter was far more of a pain than I originally expected it to be and for the longest time it was stuck around 3,300 words after I'd cut out a subplot from the story. I also didn't spend anywhere near as much time working on this story as I did on my other current WIPs since it was always sort of a side project for me rather than one of my main projects. I was recently inspired to work on this one with my muses though and here we are. This chapter still falls short of my preferred chapter length (which is at least 5,000) but it at least broke the 4,000 mark even if it is the shortest chapter in this story to date. _

_Anyway, it's up now and I even have the next two chapters prepped and ready for posting; so there won't be as long of a wait for those as there was for this. I should also point out that I updated the first four chapters when I uploaded this chapter with edited versions though there is no need for anyone to go back and reread everything unless you want to since I only fixed a few grammatical and spelling errors, cleaned up a section or two, and removed outdated author notes. I believe that covers everything I needed to cover so I'll end this note here with a huge thank you for being patient and hope the chapter was worth the wait. Next chapter should be up next weekend. =) ~ Jenn_


	6. Flight and Magic

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 05: Flight and Magic

_Tuesday, June 02, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

Tony stumbled into the kitchen to make a cup of strong coffee only to a have cup of said coffee thrust into his hands by an eager teen sporting a huge grin. The billionaire snorted in amusement over the obvious excitement radiating from the kid before he gratefully chugged down half of the coffee in a single gulp. The moment the caffeine hit his bloodstream, Tony sighed in contentment, topped off his cup from the still percolating coffee maker, and turned to find Harry was now bouncing on the balls of his feet as he kept glancing between Tony and the elevator.

"You seem awfully bouncy this morning," Tony drawled as he slurped a bit more of his coffee.

"You said I could fly today."

"What time did you get up, Gandalf?"

"Um… three?"

"Yeah, I think someone's just a little eager. Did you even bother to eat breakfast?"

"Yes, I put yours in the oven to keep it warm."

Tony walked over to the oven and peeked inside to find a plate well stocked with a thick ham and cheese omelet, bacon, and waffles. He let out an impressed whistle as he pulled the plate out and carried it to the table, "You really went to town this morning."

"I couldn't get back to sleep and J.A.R.V.I.S. was kind enough to give me a basic run down of what you would and wouldn't eat for breakfast; including how you like your coffee."

"What else have you been doing this morning to kill time? I'm mean; you've been up for what, four hours now?"

"I read through the engine manuals that you had J.A.R.V.I.S. download for me yesterday a second time since I really only skimmed through the first time and did a bit of research on the more popular motorcycles that are out there."

"Good, good, I'm glad you're taking your internship seriously. I'm really looking forward to the day when you reach the point where you're ready to start building some of your ideas; I can't wait to be one of the first to test them out."

Tony nearly laughed when the kid turned bright red in response to his comments; the kid had no idea how to take a compliment. Which was kind of sad, really. Shoving that thought out of his mind, Tony dug into the large breakfast the kid had made him while he went over the flight procedures the kid would need to observe in order to avoid being targeted by missiles.

"Okay, before we actually suit up and play Peter Pan for a few hours, there are a few rules you need to know. First and foremost; when we are flying over land, any land, you will fly thirty feet behind me and twenty feet to my left at the same exact altitude as I am flying. That rule is to protect you from being targeted by various government organizations that might see you as an enemy invading their airspace. That will also keep you well out of the flight patterns used by the civilian and military aircraft so you don't end up getting run over in mid-air and prevent you from crashing into me if you don't stop at the same time as I do."

"I know that rule sounds a bit restricting but I'll take you out over the water and let you have some fun messing around so you won't chaff under the restrictions. Second rule; once we are in the air, if I tell you to do something, you do it – no questions asked. Again, this rule is to protect you from any number of potential hazards; such as an attack directed at me by one of my enemies. It is also to prevent you from doing something that will cause your suit to malfunction or to save your life in the event that your suit starts malfunctioning. While we are in the air, I will refrain from giving you too many frivolous orders."

"Rule number three; once we are out over the ocean, there are two things you are going to want to avoid. The first is trying to fly underwater. While the suit is airtight, it was not built to withstand significant water pressure and if you go too deep it will cease to function and break apart on you; leaving you without a suit. The second thing you want to do is avoid actually leaving the Earth's atmosphere as the suit was not designed for space travel. J.A.R.V.I.S. and the suit's systems will both warn you in the event that you are flying too high or that you are too deep in the water in the event that you crash into the water unexpectedly."

"Last rule; if at any time the suit's autopilot kicks in and takes you back to Stark Tower, you are not to attempt to override the autopilot feature for any reason. The autopilot is there to get you back to safety in the shortest time possible using the most direct route. The circumstances in which the autopilot will engage are; if the suit sustains significant damage, if you are injured during flight, if you fall unconscious, if you are captured by hostiles, or if I order J.A.R.V.I.S. to activate it remotely. Basically, the autopilot will only engage if your life is in imminent danger. Do you have any questions, comments, or complaints?"

"No, not unless you count the fact that you are taking entirely too long to finish your breakfast."

"You are both cheeky and impatient this morning," Tony declared around a laugh as he turned his head to study the teen that was practically wriggling like an overexcited puppy while he finished the last few bites of food on his plate. "Come on, Gandalf; let's go get you suited up before you spontaneously combust or something from too much excitement."

Harry laughed and darted for the elevator before the words even finished leaving Tony's mouth and the forty-five year old couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever contained quite that much energy when he'd been the kid's age. He soon put that stray thought out of his mind as the two of them entered the lab and Tony slipped into his working mentality as he initiated the check sequence he'd put together to prepare the wayward teen for his first flight. There was a brief moment when he feared that the kid would be far too wound to settle down and take his first flight seriously but that fear soon passed when the kid calmed down the moment the suit began wrapping around him.

Tony insured that the kid's suit was properly fitted and sealed before he slipped into the Mark X. It was time to see just what the pint-sized wizard could do in a suit outside of a controlled environment.

"Alright, buddy; fire 'em up and follow me out," Tony ordered once he was ready to go. As he watched the kid, the teen nodded enthusiastically before he gave a strange little hop-skip-jump as he activated the Mini-suit's propulsion system. Shaking his head at the kid's antics, Tony activated his own propulsion system as he ordered, "J.A.R.V.I.S., show us the way out so that I can teach this little bird how to fly!"

"Right away, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied as the northern wall of the lab shifted and split apart to reveal a short landing platform attached to the outside of the building that Tony used for test flights; the secondary launch zone and landing pad for the Iron man connected to his lab (the main launch pad actually attached to his pent house apartment).

Tony drifted through the newly opened exit and hovered just beyond the end of the platform as Harry carefully followed him out. Tony then headed straight up in order to set their flight level above the tallest building in New York (in order to avoid having the kid crash into the side of the building if he lost control of the suit) before he aimed straight for the Atlantic Ocean. The billionaire was very pleased when all scans indicated that the kid was following him as instructed; thirty feet behind him and twenty feet to the left – which conveniently allowed Tony to visually monitor the kid's flight from time to time alongside of the tracking system.

"Sweet Merlin, this is _awesome_!" Harry declared through the communications system as they quickly reached the open airspace above the ocean and banked south to find an unoccupied stretch of ocean for the kid to play over.

"I will second that, Gandalf. What do you say? Are you ready to crank up the speed a bit?"

"Hell yeah, Tony!"

Tony laughed at Harry's enthusiasm as he put on a burst of speed to double his previous speed. He then glanced back in time to see Harry execute a textbook perfect barrel roll as he quickly caught back up to Tony and the man couldn't help but grin at the kid's daring. Fifteen minutes later, J.A.R.V.I.S. announced that they were rapidly approaching a large clear zone (no ships, no submarines, and most importantly no airplanes).

"Alright, Harry, we're going to slow to a hovering stop in three… two… and one," Tony instructed as he pulled up to hover in the air even as he spun around to observe Harry's first attempt at breaking. The kid actually pulled up to a stop without any problems; as if he'd been flying Iron Man suits all of his life. Tony was actually more than a little jealous of the kid's instinctive control of the suit. "Good job, Gandalf. Are you ready to play?"

"Really? I can just do whatever out here?"

"Well, yes but there are two new rules that you will need to keep in mind; first up, your play zone is limited to a ten thousand mile horizontal radius from my exact location. So, engage your tracking system and mark my location on your radar if you haven't already done that."

"Already done; I've had it one since we left the tower."

"Good. The only other rule I have is that you have to have fun; I'll let you know when playtime is over or if our clear zone is invaded by other air or water craft."

"Sweet; try not to have a heart attack when you watch me show you the proper way to fly, old man," Harry cheekily chortled before he shot straight up into the atmosphere.

Tony laughed as he tracked the kid's flight up to the altitude limit he'd built into the suit before he jackknifed and dove straight for the ocean below and quickly hit the maximum speed of the suit. The kid was moving so fast that Tony didn't even have time to process what the kid was intending to do before he did it and Tony felt as if he'd had twenty years scared off of his life as he watched the kid wait until the absolute last millisecond to pull out of his dive. Harry was then skimming a hair's breadth above the ocean's surface as he shot away to the north while his voice cackled gleefully through the communications system.

"Holy shit, J.A.R.V.I.S.; the kid is nuts," Tony muttered as he watched the kid purposefully fall into a looping barrel roll at top speeds as he banked around just a few thousand miles out from Tony's stationary position in the sky.

"He does appear to be a bit of a daredevil, sir."

"That was an obvious understatement, if I've ever heard one."

"Indeed, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied as a laughing Harry shot by them once again skimming the ocean's surface before he changed direction yet again and shot back up into the sky.

"How is the kid's suit and power source holding up under the extreme stunts the kid keeps pulling off?" Tony asked his advanced A.I. several minutes later after watching the kid pull off another spectacular dive, a couple of tight vertical loops, and a horizontal loop made while barrel rolling at the same time at full speed before he lost visual contact.

"Harry's energy output has superseded the output of your chest reactor five times over and the Mock Reactor is currently collecting energy faster than the suit can use it as the battery continues to absorb the bleed off directly from the teen's body. The only concern at the moment is that the battery will reach maximum capacity and overload in approximately one hour, fourteen minutes, and thirty-three seconds."

"That's not good. How badly is it going to overload? Are we talking major explosion overload or merely a cessation of function overload?"

"No idea, sir; the data I am collecting from the Mark XIII suit has just become corrupted."

"Corrupted how, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Tony demanded a split second before he opened the communication system. "Harry, playtime's over for today; I need you to return to my side so I can lead you back to the tower."

"The internal systems are experiencing severe interference from an overexposure to the teen's energy output, sir. Several systems have already ceased to function entirely; including the autopilot feature and the communications system."

"Not good… please tell me that you still have an active link to the suit."

"Yes, sir; I have already informed Harry that his test flight is being cut short and he has already cut his speed and turned around. You should reestablish visual contact with his suit momentarily."

"Good, good; how is the kid holding up? Is he panicking?"

"No, sir; he noticed the system interference and subsequent failures before I picked up on them as my connection to the Mark XIII suit apparently developed a thirty-eight second lag time during the course of his test flight."

"Why I am just now learning that little tidbit?"

"The delay seemed minor at the time it was first noted in the face of the other system failures, sir."

"Yes, well next time, don't hold back any information; no matter how significant – thirty plus seconds could be the difference between life and death in a dangerous situation."

"Of course, sir."

Tony muttered under his breath as he turned to monitor Harry's approach and he scowled when he noted that the left foot of the newer suit was sparking. The kid had apparently managed to break the Mark XIII suit simply by overloading the thing with power. Something Harry had told him would happen if he tried to use the suit but Tony had waved off as impossible at the time.

"Mr. Stark, sir; Harry wished for me to tell you, and I quote, 'I told you so'."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; tell the cheeky brat to follow me home and to try not to fall out of the sky while doing it."

The trip home was uneventful and tame compared to Harry's stunts out over the open water. Tony split that time between closely monitoring Harry in the Mark XIII and trying to figure out how to fix the glaring weakness in both the vibranium battery and the Mark XIII's internal systems. He'd honestly never imagined that too much energy could be a problem since the suits used such large amounts of power; especially during flight mode. In Tony's defense, an over abundance of power was never going to be an issue that he himself was going to have to worry about when it came to his personal suits.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., compile me a list of components that are capable of shielding the internal components from the kid's so called magic," Tony ordered as he dropped down onto the lab's landing platform and turned around to watch Harry's landing. "And pull me a detailed report from the Mark XIII's internal systems so that I can overlook the specs in order to chart the degradation of the internal systems."

"Right away, sir."

That taken care of, Tony gestured for Harry to enter the lab so that the outer door could be closed. He then flipped up the face plate on the suit he was wearing and indicated for Harry to do the same. Two seconds later, he was treated to the teen's beaming grin and excitement glazed eyes.

"Bloody hell, Tony; that was freaking awesome! Did you see me out there!? I never thought there would be anything that could top the feeling of riding my Firebolt but that was just wicked."

"Yeah, I was pretty impressed with some of the stunts you pulled and I'd originally intended to let you play a bit longer before taking you on the express world tour but apparently you managed to somehow break the suit."

"I told you that my magic didn't mix well with technology," Harry fired back as he lifted the helmet completely free of his head. "I first noticed something wrong when the system told me that the autopilot system had malfunctioned and I tried to tell you but that was when I discovered that the communications system wasn't working. The left boot was the next things to start acting up; that was about the same time as J.A.R.V.I.S. told me that you wanted me to meet back up with you."

"Alright, Einstein; if you're so all-knowing, tell me how to shield the internal system components from your magic? And while you're at it, tell how you would go about limiting the amount of bleed off the vibranium battery absorbs from your body since half of the problem was the fact that you were overloading the Mock Reactor."

"Cold iron and pure gold," Harry answered promptly. "Those are the only two substances that can completely block the effects of magic. As for the battery issue, the easiest way to solve that would be to remove all traces of my blood that you told me you had incorporated into the battery; the presence of blood always magnifies the effects of magic."

"Will it be possible to charge the battery without the presence of the blood?"

"Yes; the blood is only amplifying the magic's affect on the vibranium. Using mithril or truesilver as part of the battery would also stabilize the core and greatly increase the capacity of the battery as both of those metals are highly resilient magical conductors with the ability to withstand extremely high levels of raw magic."

"I hate to break it to you, Gandalf, but mithril doesn't exist."

"Yeah, actually, it does. The goblins and the dwarves have fought more than a few brutal wars over the possession of the handful of mithril despots that had been discovered throughout history. The sword that I used to slay the basilisk at the end of my second year was a goblin forged blade made from mithril. Truesilver is actually far easier to come by as it can be found near large deposits of thorium while mithril is only found deep inside of active and dormant super volcanoes."

"Where did you learn that?"

"History of Magic during the rare occasions when the ghost teaching the class didn't lull me to sleep with his dull droning monotone," Harry replied as he set his helmet down on the table and frowned down at the rest of the armor he was wearing. "Um, do ya think maybe you could get me out of here? The, uh, automated removal function isn't working and the manual override is stuck, I actually think several sections of the suit fused together… and I really have to pee."

"You can just pee in the suit, you know."

"Uh, no; not happening, Tony."

Tony laughed at the near glare that Harry leveled at him even as he stepped up beside the teen and began peeling the suit off of him piece by piece; noting that several of the individuals sections had indeed been fused together. Once he had the teen free of the ruined suit, Tony laughed again when Harry bolted straight for the laboratory bathroom. The moment the kid was out of sight, Tony's amusement disappeared in an instant as he surveyed the mess that had been made of the Mark XIII suit. The kid had done a real number on the suit without even really trying.

Abruptly turning his back on the newly made scrap heap, Tony instructed J.A.R.V.I.S. to analyze the remains of the prototype as he began making arrangements to purchase a supply of cold iron, pure gold, and what he thought might be truesilver based upon the fact that it had been mined from a fairly rich vein that had been discovered near a large deposit of thorium. He then began redesigning the vibranium battery and Mock Reactor in the hopes of maximizing its efficiency and minimizing the risk of the battery overloading in the future.

He barely paid any attention to Harry's return as the kid finished taking care of business in the bathroom. He only glanced in the teen's direction once to note that Harry had sat down at his assigned workstation and begun working without any prompting on Tony's behalf; something the genius greatly appreciated. Tony would then have a full two hours of uninterrupted work before J.A.R.V.I.S. called his attention to the other side of the lab.

"Sir, I suggest you stop what you are doing and take a look behind you."

"I'm busy right now, J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Mr. Stark, I believe you really need to see this."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., not now."

"Sir, you need to turn around."

Tony growled at the A.I.'s persistence before he did as instructed and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor as he caught sight of Harry standing frozen in the middle of the lab holding the Mock Reactor that had powered the ruined Mark XIII in his right hand while everything within a five foot radius of him that was not securely bolted to the floor floated in the air around him. He quickly collected himself when he noted the thin stream of smoke rising from Harry's right hand and he sharply demanded, "Harry, what are you doing?"

Harry flinched sharply in response to Tony's question and the tone it had been issued in and the kid dropped the Mock Reactor; all of the hovering items dropping to the floor with a loud crash at the same time. The teen then whipped around to stare at Tony with wide, wild eyes full of fear as he blurted out, "I'm sorry! I didn't do it on purpose! I just wanted to take a closer look at the core to see how it was put together and when I picked it up, everything else rose off the floor with it. I swear, I didn't mean to do it."

"Relax, Gandalf; I'm not angry about seeing some hard visual proof that you have magic. I was far more concerned with the fact that you didn't seem to even care that the Mock Reactor was burning your bare hand."

"I never noticed my hand was burning and the pain was drowned out by the sheer amount of magic I could feel being pulled straight from my core," Harry replied as he turned his hand over to stare at the damage that had been done to his hand. "I'd never felt anything like that before; not even when I cast higher level spells with my wand."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., how badly did he damage his hand?"

"His right hand incurred second degree burns from the overheating vibranium core held within the Mock Reactor and it should be noted that his internal energy levels were reduced by a full quarter after coming into contact with the device."

"Alright, kid; let's get you cleaned up. And for now on, I don't want you picking up any of the reactors or batteries unless you are wearing protective gloves," Tony ordered as he hurried over to Harry, snagged his elbow, and began pulling him towards the lab sink. "J.A.R.V.I.S., have one of the drones pick up the mess in the lab and store the Mark XIII's remains off to one side so that I can study them later."

"Yes, sir. Shall I contact Dr. Banner and tell him that his services are needed?"

"No, I can handle a simple burn," Tony countered as he turned on the cold water before thrusting Harry's injured hand beneath the gentle stream of cool water. "Keep that hand under the water while I grab the first aid kit."

Tony heaved a mental sigh of relief ten minutes later when he pulled Harry's hand out from under the water and noted that the damage didn't look anywhere near as severe as he'd imagined it had when he first saw it. He also made a mental note to have the nerves in the kid's right hand scanned for permanent damage since Harry said he hadn't really felt any pain while he'd been holding the Mock Reactor. As he loosely wrapped Harry's hand with a stripe of gauze, Tony's thoughts kept turning over what he'd seen in his mind and he couldn't help but wonder what else the kid could do with his magic.

"How much pain are you in right now, Harry?"

"I'm fine."

"I wasn't born yesterday, you know; I'm well aware of just how painful burns can be."

"It stings a bit but I've had far worse; like when my wand caught fire in my hand. Really, I'm fine."

"Alright, we're still calling it a day though and I don't want you doing anything with that hand until it is completely healed; that's the second time I've seen you burn that particular hand and you can do your nerves some serious damage if you aren't careful."

"I can still work though, right? I mean, it will be fine if I just read stuff on the internet or play with the holographic design models, right?"

"Yeah, you can still work so long as you aren't using your right hand; just not for the rest of today," Tony replied after he noted the almost desperate pleading look in the kid's eyes. "Come on, let's get you upstairs and set you up with a movie or two for the afternoon."

Tony watched the fourteen year old give a longing glance towards the still glowing Mock Reactor sitting on the floor alongside of the salvage from the Mark XIII prototype before he headed for the elevators. Tony couldn't help but wonder what that look had been about as the two of them headed back up to the penthouse. He held his tongue for all of two minutes before his usual impatience got the better of him when he hadn't been able to deduce the reason behind the look on his own.

"So, what's running through your head right now, Gandalf?"

"I miss it."

"Miss what?"

"My wand… and being able to do magic; today was the first time I used my magic since I woke up here, if I don't count my angry outburst that first night."

"Can't you use your magic without a wand?"

"Yeah, but it's not the same as casting spells. It takes a proper focus to control one's magic and guide it to do a specific task and without that guide you'll just get a different result each time you pull on your magic and potentially kill yourself by repeatedly over exhausting your core completely."

"Why? It's all magic, isn't it? What core are you referring to? The wand's core?"

"It takes more than raw magic to cast a spell. A wizard's magic can be compared to an endless river or an underground spring; always flowing and exceedingly difficult to control. A wizard's wand allows him to siphon off a small fraction of his magic and shape the magic into a specific spell design to produce a set reaction; such as making an object float. And the core I was referring to was a wizard's core; the part of him where his magic comes from."

"A wizard's core, huh? Where does a wizard keep his core, in his back pocket? How does one exhaust a core? Is it like a battery? Does it actually hold the wizard's magic?"

"No, a wizard's magical core is found inside of his heart and with each beat of his heart, the magic his core produces is circulated through his body alongside of his blood. The magical core also doesn't hold any magic either; it just produces the magic. As for the exhaustion… a wizard's magic is a part of him almost from the moment he is conceived; it flows through his blood and protects him from things like germs and bacteria and can heal him or keep him from dying if he is powerful enough. If a wizard uses too much of his magic though, his body is weakened because that magic is no longer protecting him; almost like loosing too much blood. His core is then forced to work harder to replenish the magic."

"What happens if a wizard can't replenish his magic?"

"He dies. We need our magic to survive more so than we need air to breathe. That is why we need wands to perform proper spells; the magic inherent in the wand draws upon a small fraction of the magic inside of us and allows us to use our magic to manipulate our environment. Without a wand, we court death each time we attempt magic because we can't control how much magic we draw upon to cast our spells without a proper focus and that lack of control is also what makes the end results of all wandless attempts to cast spells so unpredictable."

"And you believe that the Mock Reactor acted as a substitute wand for you?"

"Yes, only far less focused and without the control that a wand would provide; like the difference between a fireman's hosepipe and a simple garden hosepipe."

"What would constitute a proper wand?"

"Well, all of the wands I'd ever seen were made from two components; the outer casing which was made of wood and the inner core which was usually taken from a magical creature. For example, my wand was made of holly wood and had a phoenix feather core. Ron's first wand was made from ash and had a unicorn's tail hair in it while his second wand was made from willow with unicorn hair again. Hermione's wand, on the other hand, was made from vine wood with a dragon heartstring core. And, Voldemort's wand was made from yew with a phoenix feather core. They come in all different lengths too; mine was eleven inches, Voldemort's was thirteen and a half inches, and Ron's second one was fourteen inches."

"Is there a particular rhyme or reason to which wood and which core a person's wand contained?"

"If there is, I couldn't tell you what it was since, according to Mr. Ollivander (the Wandmaker that I purchased my wand from) it is the wand that chooses the wizard and not the other way around."

"Interesting," Tony mused as he began mentally designing what he believed would be a superior wand after he recalled Harry's comments about how the Mock Reactor had behaved much like a wand the moment he'd picked it up.

After seeing Harry ensconced in the living room with a large bowl of popcorn, a bag of pretzels, a six pack of soda, and all four of the Indiana Jones movies, Tony returned to his lab and made several more orders for supplies; including an order for a box of one inch diameter dowel sticks made from holly as well as a few two inch by two inch by eighteen inch blocks of holly. Once that was done, he continued making alterations and upgrades to the Mark XIII prototype design in order to eliminate the weaknesses Harry had managed to uncover in the suit and Mock Reactor.

After burning his hand on the Mock Reactor, Harry would spend the next two days under the watchful eye of Dr. Banner in the man's personal lab instead of in Tony's lab. Harry spent half of that time working on his flying motorcycle project and the other half of the time being tutored by Dr. Banner in the various branches of science and advanced mathematics (the latter of which would be extremely helpful to know for his projects). Tony had spent both of those days out of Stark Tower attending meetings with Pepper and a bunch of stuffy old guys (Tony's words, not Harry's).

Harry enjoyed spending time with the man almost as much as he enjoyed working in the lab with Tony. In fact, Dr. Banner often reminded Harry of Remus (and not just because he occasionally turned into a rage filled monster) in that he was fairly calm and patient while Tony reminded Harry of his godfather because he was bold and brash. In some ways, it was almost painful to spend time with the two men because of how much they reminded him of Padfoot and Moony but at the same time, being constantly reminded of both wizards helped him to not forget the last four years of his life.

He also loved the fact that both men took the time to teach him; something that very few adults had ever done for him (Remus one of the exceptions). The fact that both men actually expected and encouraged Harry to do his best was also a big part of the reason that Harry enjoyed spending time with them. Harry had never been stupid but he had been forced to hide his intelligence for most of his academic career lest his aunt and uncle punish him for making Dudley look bad. And by the time he'd started Hogwarts, hiding his intelligence had become a deeply ingrained habit and the fact that he was friends with a lazy wizard and an overachieving witch hadn't exactly encouraged him to change his behavior.

That wasn't to say that Harry regretted his friendship with Ron and Hermione, he didn't; he just hadn't been able to truly lower all of his walls around the pair because of their own insecurities. They still knew him best though; which was why Ron's betrayal and refusal to believe him about being forced into the Tournament had hurt so deeply.

* * *

**AN:** Well would you look at that_… not only am I updating this story TWICE this month, I'm updating a full day ahead of schedule! Go Me! *Coughs* Anyway, there it is; Harry's first test run in the Ironman Suit and Tony's experience at being on the other side of recklessness for a change. Next chapter has... stuff in it but I can't remember what because my brain is currently wired to the Pokemon Channel. I hope to have it up next weekend but I make no promises as I think there's a slight plot error in either chap 7 or 8 that I have to fix first. I'll figure it out soon.  
_

_If I don't post on this story again this month, you can expect an update or two in September since I have at least one more chapter that is mostly ready for posting. I still have a lot of editing to do on everything I have written after that though and still need to actually finish the last couple of chapters. Hopefully, it won't take me another year to get that done since it would be nice to remove a project from my current To Do List. _

_Anywho, hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and if you want to know when I'll be updating again, be sure to stay tuned to my author's page where I have a running progress report on all my WIPs posted that is updated each time I add at least a hundred words to the word count of any story. I also post tentative update dates once a chapter has been completed. ~ Jenn_


	7. Escaping Felines

**Disclaimer:** _I used write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own for each and every story I write but I find myself not really interested in doing so any more as it grew very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction._

**Warnings:** _Mild Violence, Language, Adult Context, Alternate Universe, _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 06: Escaping Felines

_Friday, June 05, 2015  
Stark Tower, New York City  
United States_

Harry rolled out of bed at six sharp on the morning of the fifth; Tony had returned late the night before and the man had promised to take him back down to the lab this morning. The wizard was really looking forward to getting back to some hands-on work now that his hand had finally finished healing. Actually, his hand had healed in less than twenty-four hours but Harry wasn't allowed to work in any of the labs unless there was an adult present and Tony's personal labs were off limits unless Tony was there (Tony only ever leaving Harry alone that one time).

Eager to help Tony fix the problems with the Mark XIII (because he couldn't wait to fly again), Harry sped through his morning ablutions before he got dressed. He then grabbed the laptop Tony had given him to use and bolted out of his room. He dashed down the hallway towards the living room and kitchen, a huge grin on his face as the prospect of spending a day in the lab getting his hands dirty instead of merely exercising his brain. A pair of unfamiliar and highly intimidating adults standing in the entrance of the pent house as Harry came barreling out of the back of the suite doused Harry's good mood instantly as he skidded to a wide-eyed stop mere feet from the pair.

The man was at least two inches taller than Tony with light brown hair and sharp blue eyes. He was wearing tight black pants, a sleeveless black t-shirt under a skintight leather vest, and heavy combat boots. He also had a quiver full of arrows on his back, an arm guard on his right arm, a finger guard on his left hand, and carried a high-tech bow. The woman, on the other hand, had shoulder length hair that was dark red, light green eyes with a hard glint in them, and was only about six inches taller than Harry. She was wearing a skin tight body suit that emphasized her slim figure and chest along with a gun strapped to her left thigh.

"Who are you and how did you get in here, kid?" the man demanded as he tightened his grip on his bow and half reached up to grab an arrow out of his quiver.

"I'm Mr. Stark's new intern and he set me up with a room here," Harry replied after a split second's hesitation as he took a single step backwards and clutched his borrowed laptop to his chest.

"Nice try, kid, but I ain't buying it; you aren't old enough to be an intern."

"Shows what you know," Harry snarked back as he gave the man a scowl for daring to imply that he was a liar.

"Do your parents know you are here?" the woman asked in a kind tone that instantly put Harry on alert; it reminded him of the times when Aunt Petunia would pretend to be nice just before she said something particularly nasty.

"They're dead," Harry flatly answered as he unconsciously turned his body sideways to make himself a smaller target.

"Okay, what about your guardians? Where are they?"

"I no longer have or need a guardian; I'm emancipated."

"Pull the other leg, kid; it has bells on it. No government is going to emancipate a twelve year old."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm turning fifteen next month then," Harry growled as he scowled fiercely at the man that had just insulted him yet again. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you let Tony know that there're a couple of creepy weirdos armed to the teeth in the pent house?"

"Mr. Stark is on his way out now, Harry," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied to the shock of the two adults that had been fingering their weapons without taking their eyes off of Harry.

"Legolas, would you kindly stop harassing my intern; I don't need you scaring him off his game plan when we were just getting ready to get back to work in the lab," Tony ordered as he walked up behind Harry and clapped him on the shoulder. "Did you eat breakfast yet, buddy?"

"No, I ran into the creep squad before I could reach the kitchen."

"Go grab something to eat then; I don't need you passing out in the lab because you went to work on an empty stomach; Pepper would have my head on a pike if she thought I was abusing my only intern."

"Yes, sir… did you want me to make you something while I'm in there?"

"No, Happy picked up some fresh donuts for me an hour ago."

"Donuts…? Are there any left?" Harry asked as casually as he could; the teen had developed a fondness for the sweet pastries over the past week.

"I might have saved you a bear claw or two."

"Brilliant," Harry crowed before he dashed off towards the kitchen. As he snagged one of the large bear claws out of the large, pink box of donuts, Harry unabashedly eavesdropped on Tony chastising the two adults that had turned up.

"Now, mind telling me why the two of you felt the need to grill Harry over an open flame before I even had a chance to properly introduce the two of you to him? Come to think of it, why are the two of you here? I thought you were working a mission?"

"We finished early. Why is there a kid here, Mr. Stark?"

"He's my new intern; brilliant kid with a wicked sense of humor and an amazing imagination. His work is going to take Stark Industries in an entirely new direction."

"He's underage…"

"He's legal, regardless of how old he is, and he is emancipated. That isn't even taking into consideration that as of three o'clock yesterday afternoon, I was granted conditional custody of the kid due to his status as a minor; meaning that he is my responsibility so long as he remains in my employ and lives on my property."

Harry nearly dropped the glass of milk he'd just poured for himself as he heard that little tidbit. Swallowing thickly, Harry wondered exactly what that would mean for him before he pushed the matter out of his mind as he strained his ears to hear what else was being said.

"You're Tony Stark, responsibility has never been a factor in anything you do," the woman cut back rather harshly.

"Well, I'll admit that it was Pepper that insisted upon the conditional custodian thing but that's only because she wanted to protect the kid from any negative press due to his close association to me through his internship. Now, Harry's probably going to finish his breakfast fairly soon here and he's going to want to know who you are, so that means I'm going to have to introduce the two of you to him. Before I do, however, there's one I think I want to make perfectly clear; Harry is off limits to all things S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fury. You want to hang out with him and get to know him, fine; so long as he allows it. But I will not allow you to make his life a living hell by dragging him into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar simply because he has an internship with Stark Industries."

"What's so special about the kid that you are willing to tolerate him? And why are you so paranoid about the Director learning about him?"

"What's so special about him? Do you know how hard it is to find a kid that appreciates classic music? Or one that will honestly laugh at my jokes, isn't afraid to intelligently insult me to my face, and who can actually speak and understand technological jargon? And did you not hear me earlier when I said he was brilliant? The kid's a right genius! And there's no way I'm letting Fury steal him away from me. He's my protégé and I'm not sharing him with the grumpy pirate."

"So you traveled all the way to England to find an intern?"

"No, technically, I found him by chance in France."

Harry groaned as he rinsed out his glass and set it on the counter; the only thing more annoying than Tony's bad puns was Tony when he started rhyming. The not-quite fifteen year old then grabbed his laptop and snagged the last bear claw before he headed back out to the entrance hall where Tony was still occupying the two strangers.

"By chance…? You mean you don't even know if he has the proper qualifications…? You just picked him up?"

"I didn't say that and of course he has the proper qualifications; otherwise I wouldn't have granted him an internship."

"That and I'm pretty certain that I'm one of the few people in existence that will put up with him for extended periods of time without developing mental issues or homicidal tendencies," Harry interjected as he leaned against the wall and took a big bite out of the bear claw in his hand.

"Don't be cheeky or I'll demote you to go-fer," Tony threatened with a mock pout and a twinkle in his eye that said he was joking. Harry just snickered and smirked at the man as he took another bite. "Come on over here, runt, and let me introduce me to two of your sometimes neighbors." Harry narrowed his eyes over the dig at his height but complied with the command anyway, since he really was curious as to who these two people were and why they were allowed into the pent house with their weapons on hand. "Harry, allow me to introduce you to Agents Clint Barton and Na…"

"Natalie Rushman," the redhead interrupted before Tony could finish.

"Natalie Rushman; they occasionally crash here whenever they're in town. Clint, Natalie; meet Harry Potter, my smart aleck intern who is going to help Stark Industries take the transportation world by storm."

"Pleasure to meet you," Harry offered out of habit before his brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought Mr. Barton's name was Legolas though?"

"No, Stark just calls me that when he thinks he's being funny," Mr. Barton dryly explained.

"Why…? It's not like you have pointed ears and long blonde hair."

"He plays with a bow and arrow."

"Then you should rightly be calling him Robin Hood, not Legolas… though I suppose that would only apply if he was robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Maybe you could call him cupid instead?"

"See…? Didn't I tell you he was a genius?" Tony crowed as Ms. Rushman smothered a laugh and Mr. Barton glowered at Harry.

"Hey, don't glare at me; you're the one that insulted me first by calling me a twelve year old on top of insinuating that I was lying to you about my internship," Harry pointed out before he deliberately turned his back on the pair so he could address Tony. "Are we going down to the lab now, Tony? I spent the past two days reworking the diagrams on the motorcycle engine and you said you'd look them over again today. I also researched various options for creating a dependable rechargeable battery."

"Well, I guess that's my cue to get back to work; we'll see you two for supper and the now standard after dinner movie marathon – tonight we're going retro and watching the Back to the Future trilogy."

Harry took that to mean that they were heading down to the lab now and he bolted for the elevator, slipping between Ms. Rushman and Mr. Barton as effortlessly as he once slipped between students in the crowded halls of Hogwarts. As he moved passed the pair, Harry noted the stylized eagles both of them had on their clothing (Ms. Rushman on her left arm and Mr. Barton on his chest). The teen immediately recognized the symbol and felt a knot of dread form in his stomach as he hurried passed the pair to punch the lift button. Tony joined him by the lift just as the doors slid open and the two of them stepped inside together.

The moment the door's slid shut, Harry looked up at Tony and asked, "They both work for that shield S.H.I.E.L.D. organization thing you told me about, don't they?"

"Yes, they do. They are both good people despite who their employer is and I have trusted them to watch my back on more than one occasion. You won't have to worry about either of them kidnapping you in your sleep though. The only one you really have to watch out for is Nick Fury; the Director. He's not a bad person, per se, but he has been known to do whatever it takes to get a job done and he tends to walk over others in his efforts to protect America and the world."

"Won't they tell Mr. Fury that I'm here though?"

"Yes, Natalie will undoubtedly have contacted the Director the moment the doors slid shut behind us but you don't have to worry about it. I've already covered all the bases and no matter how deep they dig, they won't find anything to contradict the background story that I created for you. Barton will grumble for a few days because you called him cupid but he'll get over it fairly quickly while Rushman will try to manipulate you into telling her all of your secrets."

"Will they try to hack into the computers?"

"Yes, and unfortunately, they'll probably succeed too but they still won't find anything incriminating on you because I've had J.A.R.V.I.S. shift all of the more sensitive information over to my private server and that device is inaccessible to anyone other than me. I suggest you not put anything on that old laptop I gave you that you don't want anyone to know because they will find a way to access it the moment you set it down."

"Do I need to worry about the engine diagrams?"

"No, they won't care about those. I'm talking personal stuff, like if you started keeping a journal on there."

"Oh, there's nothing like that on here. I've only used it for work."

"What? Are you telling me that you've not even tested out any of the games I loaded on there for you?"

"Games…?" Harry parroted as the two of them entered the lab and headed for their respective workstations.

"Remind me to show you where they can be found later; right now I want to see the changes you made to your initial designs while I was stuck in boring meetings for the last two days."

"Alright," Harry eagerly agreed as he quickly slid the laptop into the docking station at his assigned work space and booted up the machine. "The math tutorials that Dr. Banner gave me to work on while you were gone really helped, as did some of his science lectures on chemistry, electronics, and physics. I never would have thought that math and science could factor so heavily in building something like an engine."

"Science and math make the world go round, buddy."

"Apparently so… or humans just made up things like science and math to explain the unexplainable because they were too frightened of the unknown," Harry countered with a smirk as he opened up the design program and transferred his engine designs to the main holographic display so that Tony could check them over.

The two of them would then spend the half of the morning tearing apart Harry's designs and putting them back together with Tony pointing out his mistakes (of which there were only a couple). The other half of the morning was spent going over the Mark XIII suit design with Harry tentatively offering a suggestion or two on the best way to shield the inner circuitry of the suit from his magic. They would then spend their lunch hour playing computer games over a box of Thai food before Tony left Harry to continue his work on the redesigned engine while he began building the Mock Reactor Mark II.

Harry had just fixed one of the glaring mistakes in his theoretical engine that Tony had pointed out to him when the man in question walked up to him and thrust a cylindrical wooden object under his nose and ordered, "Give this a couple of waves, Gandalf."

"Don't do that!" Harry exclaimed in surprise as he reared backwards from the shock of nearly having his nose jabbed by the wooden object. "And what exactly is that supposed to be?"

"What, you can't recognize a wand when you see one?"

"That's not a wand, Tony… at least not one that I've ever seen before. It's far too thick and the tip should be half the diameter of the base and smoothed over so there are no sharp edges and it doesn't even have a handle," Harry replied as he hesitantly reached out to take hold of the wooden rod. The moment his hand touched the wood, Harry felt a draw on his magic much like the one he'd felt when he'd picked up the Mock Reactor and he yelped in shock even as he dropped the rod onto his desk where it rocked back and forth as a thin stream of smoke rose from the thing. "What did you do to that?"

"I hollowed it out and gave it a vibranium core. Why did you drop it so quickly? Did you burn your hand again?"

"No, I dropped it because my magic surged the moment I touched it and I wasn't expecting it to draw on my core."

"Was it a large or small surge?"

"Large and just as uncontrolled as the flood of magic that the Mock Reactor had drawn from my core the other day."

"So, the inner core should be smaller, the diameter needs to be smaller, and the wood needs to be in a specific shape. Can you draw me a diagram of a basic wand so I have some idea of what I should be aiming for?"

"What exactly is it you are trying to do, Tony?" Harry asked in confusion as he flicked his gaze from the wooden rod to Tony and back again several times.

"Isn't it obvious…? I'm making you a replacement wand."

Harry blinked at Tony before he dropped his gaze down to the rod as he quietly asked, "Why?"

"Why not…? You said you missed doing magic and that you had to have a wand to properly use your magic. Then there's the fact that studying the energy fluctuations that occur when you perform spells might give me a better idea on how to protect the suit from your bleed off."

"Do you have a diagram of how you made this one or did you just throw something together on the fly?" Harry finally asked as an affectionate grin tugged at the corner of his mouth in response to Tony's thoughtfulness while blatantly ignoring the fact that the man had just admitted he wanted to run more tests on Harry's magic.

"I have three diagrams that I drew while I was stuck in meetings," Tony replied as he stepped over to his work station to pull up the wand designs he'd come up with onto the main holographic display.

Harry noted that each one of them basically had a wooden rod with a small ball or disk of vibranium tucked into one end of the rod. There was even one that looked like a miniature version of Gandalf's staff. Tipping his head to one side in thought, Harry shoved two of the diagrams off to one side and began making adjustments to the remaining design. First, he changed the basic shape of the rod so that the diameter was half of the original size and made the tip smaller than the base before he rounded off the very end. Next, he hollowed out the center of the rod along the entire length except for the final inch of the tip and added threads to the outside of the rod at the base so that the wand could be screwed into a handle.

After that, he added a thin metal rod (that could be made from silver, copper, or pewter) with a small pocket on one end that would fit a sliver of vibranium about the size and shape of an eyeless sewing needle. The duel rod would then be sheathed in a tube of cold iron. He took a few moments to write out the proper dimensions of the wand (such as length, diameter, and weight) and noted that the wood should be sanded smooth and sealed with beeswax, not varnish. Lastly, he added a solid handle made of wood that was similar in appearance to the handle of his original wand.

"I'm finished," Harry declared as he stepped back away from the diagram.

"Why did you use such a small amount of vibranium in the core?"

"I don't need to run a suit or an entire building with the wand, Tony. A wand is meant to be a focus, a tool; not a power source."

"What function does the dual sheath around the core serve?"

"Silver conducts magic nearly as well as truesilver or mithril and the silver rod is meant to draw the magic away from the vibranium and guide it down the length of the wand. Copper or pewter would work as well but they aren't as durable as silver. The cold iron, on the other hand, is needed to protect the wood casing from the heat generated by the core and to further aim the magic drawn into the wand in a single direction; which is why the iron tube doesn't extend to cover either end of the inner rod."

"Why doesn't the core extend down into the handle?"

"To create a buffer between my hand and the core to help limit the amount of magic drawn into the wand and prevent my hand from being burned if the wand overheats despite the presence of the cold iron. The shape and size is to allow for a more secure grip; making it is harder for someone to take the wand from my hand."

"Okay, let's get this done then; you go pick through the holly dowels I ordered, find one you think will work, and mark off which section of it you want to use while I set about casting your core."

"Yes, sir; oh, and Tony, there can't be any seams in the cold iron – it has to be made from an unbroken tube or my magic will rip it apart through the perceived weakness in the metal at the seam."

"Not a problem, Gandalf."

Harry laughed when Tony saluted him in response to his warning before he shook his head and walked over to the box of wooden dowel sticks that Tony had propped up against his work table. Harry dumped the entire box out onto the table and carefully inspected the three-foot lengths of pale wood. The few that were not made of a single section of wood were immediately returned to the box, leaving only two rods on the table. After a small debate, he selected the dowel that was knot-free and returned the other one to the box. He then measured off twelve and a half inches (the extra inch and a half added to account for the length of the rod that would be inserted into the handle or shaved off to make the tip).

That done, Harry returned to his desk and laptop to resume work on the motorcycle engine he was designing while he tried not to think about having a working wand once more. He would have about forty-five minutes of undisturbed work before Tony was once again thrusting a wooden rod under his nose; only this time the resemblance to an actual wand was far greater. Harry stared at the handle of the unfinished wand for several long seconds before he reluctantly reached out to take hold of the device.

The moment his fingers wrapped around the handle, Harry again felt a draw on his magic; though this draw was far less wild than the previous draw he'd felt when he'd handled Tony's first attempt at a wand. Silver and pale blue sparks exploded from the tip of the artificial wand (it technically had no magic at all unlike true wands) that swirled wildly around Harry before they disappeared. Harry laughed softly and closed his eyes as he felt the wand hum and thrum with magic; the feeling well remembered from all of the times that he'd used his old holly wand. Only, his old wand never radiated the sheer amount of power that the artificial wand currently held; the device having absorbed the magic it had pulled from him.

"So, what's the verdict, Gandalf? Is that going to work or were the sparks indicative of a malfunction?" Tony demanded after two full minutes of silence.

"That was just my magic bonding with the wand," Harry replied absently as he opened his eyes and studied the wand in his hand for another minute before he settled the handle into more comfortable position in his palm and pulled upon every happy memory he could recall. "Now for a practical test; _Expecto Patronum_!"

Harry's magic surged forward eagerly as the final syllable of the incantation fell from his lips and a huge silvery-white form three times larger than his normal patronus poured forth from the tip of his wand before solidifying into an armored stag that appeared for more solid than it should. Harry barely stopped his jaw from hitting the floor as his patronus snorted out a cloud of ethereal steam and shook its antlered head before it turned to face him.

The young wizard held his breath and reached out with his left hand as the creature stepped closer to him and he nearly flinched when his hand came into contact with what felt like cool metal as he touched the stag's muzzle. He then laughed softly a heartbeat later as the stag nuzzled his hand like a real animal seeking attention even as he was suffused with the positive emotions that he'd used to fuel the Patronus Charm. The stag snorted a second time and Harry felt tendrils of his magic curling around him; the stag's breath comprised entirely out of magic (much like the stag itself).

"I bet you could take on the entire population of dementors without breaking a sweat now, eh Prongs?" Harry inquired with awe and amusement. He couldn't help but chuckle when the stag eagerly nodded its head and pawed the ground with one hoof; each strike drawing a flurry of tiny blue sparks. "I look forward to the day I can see you in action, Prongs. For now, you are free to go."

The stag snorted one final time before it reached out to tweak a lock of Harry's hair with its teeth before the magic that gave it form shattered and dissipated into the air where it was quickly sucked up by his wand. Harry stared at the wand with a little bit of trepidation due to the way it had reabsorbed the magic but when nothing happened after several seconds, he just wrote it off as a weird side affect of the vibranium core. The soon to be fifteen year old then glanced to his side where a silent Tony was staring at the spot where the stag had scuffed the floor of the lab with its hoof.

"What kind of spell was that, Gandalf?" Tony asked after he shook himself out of his stupor and lifted his blue eyes to meet Harry's gaze.

"That was the Patronus Charm and the stag was my patronus; though that was the first time I'd ever conjured a patronus that large or that solid and the suit of armor it wore was entirely new."

"You called it Prongs, why?"

"You remember what I told you about my father and his group of friends and how they became animagi to help Moony during the full moons? Well, my patronus is the spitting image of my father's animagus form (not counting the armor it was wearing) and I always imagine that each time I cast that spell, it is my father's spirit coming back to watch over and protect me."

"That's quite a powerful sentiment," Tony murmured absently as he stared off at nothing. The man then shook himself again before he gave Harry a crooked grin and asked, "So, what other tricks can you show me now that you have a proper wand? I mean you have to put that twig through its paces and give it a thorough testing to ensure that it is fully functional, right?"

"You just want to see me cast some of the spells that I talked about."

"Well, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that you need to test the wand."

Harry laughed again before he began casting all of the spells he could remember, starting with a color changing charm that turned Tony's shirt and pants purple and gold before he levitated random tools, summoned stray parts, and banished a few pieces of trash that were laying around the room. He then repaired a broken mug that had been thrown away, transfigured a piece of the ruined Mark XIII prototype into a hedgehog, and used the Engorgement Charm on a pen that had been sitting on his desk.

"I'm impressed; this actually looks like a real hedgehog only its cold to the touch like the armor it was made from and still weighs the same as the piece of scrap metal you made it out of," Tony stated as he captured the transfigured hedgehog and gave it a thorough examination. "Why a hedgehog though?"

"It was the first animal that popped into my head."

"How is the wand holding up? Are you feeling any excess heat through the handle?"

"It's brilliant, Tony; it works even better than my old holly wand despite the fact that it wasn't made by a Wandmaker and technically doesn't have any magic of its own, unlike a true wand."

"Good, pass it over and I'll add the finishing touches while you clean up your work station for the day."

Harry reluctantly passed the wand back to Tony, who smirked knowingly at him, before he turned around to begin cleaning up his work station. He'd just pulled his borrowed laptop free of the docking station when Tony returned with the vibranium wand in hand and held it out to him once more. Harry immediately noted that the handle had been painted hotrod red and had a series of artistic swirls that had been inlaid with gold carved into the wood. The wand had also been freshly sanded and wiped clean with a damp cloth to remove all of the wood dust from the surface.

"I didn't have any beeswax on hand to add a finishing coat to the wand casing but the jar of organic polish I ordered for you should be here first thing tomorrow morning," Tony stated as Harry reverently accepted the wand back. "I also ordered a leather sheath making kit so that you can make yourself some kind of holster to carry it in."

"Thanks, Tony," Harry murmured lowly as he let his right thumb trace over the swirling gold patterns on the handle.

"You're welcome, kid; now can you please restore my clothes to their former glory so we can go celebrate with pizza, popcorn, and a movie?"

Harry laughed and flicked the wand in Tony's direction as he spoke the incantation for the Cancellation Spell. He laughed a second time when Tony breathed a sigh of relief and patted down the Black Sabbath t-shirt he was wearing as if to verify that the shirt had been unharmed by the spell. Tony then pulled him into a headlock and gave him a noogie as he dragged the teen towards the door while Harry laughed and squirmed as he tried to free himself. They were still wrestling and goofing around in the antechamber when the lift doors opened up to reveal a women with shoulder length black hair that had been pulled up into a bun at the back of her head waiting inside of the open elevator.

"Agent Hill, fancy meeting you here right outside of my private workshop," Tony intoned as he released Harry and straightened up. "I hadn't realized I had a meeting scheduled with you today."

"You didn't; I was actually on my way up to brief Clint and Natasha about their recent mission," Agent Hill replied as she smiled and dropped her gaze on Harry. "Who is your friend? He doesn't appear to be a side-product of one of your many one night stands; unless he gets his looks entirely from his mother?"

"No, Harry isn't my bastard son and if he was, don't you think it would have been inappropriate of you to ask me such a question in front of him?" Tony retorted with a slight inflection of annoyance as he dragged Harry into the elevator with him. "Besides, I was always very careful during my dalliances with the fairer sex; I'm one hundred percent certain that there are no mini-mes running around out there."

"My apologies, no insult was intended."

"Don't worry, Ms. Hill, I took your question as a compliment," Harry replied with a smug half smirk. "Tony is almost as big of a trouble maker as my dad was when he was alive and my father was an absolute genius; he married my mum and had me, after all. I don't think my dad could have topped peeing inside of his suit in front of an audience though."

"I do believe there was an insult in there somewhere," Tony remarked as he propped one hand on his hip and scratched his goatee with the other. "Remind me to dock your pay for it later, Samwise. Well, I suppose that means it is time for proper introductions; Harry, meet Agent Hill. Agent, meet my new intern; Harry Potter."

* * *

**AN:** _And this time I'm running two days late as punishment for gloating about my early posting last week. Ah well, I've always hated keeping to a schedule and half the problem was that my menace of a kitten dislikes it when I'm paying more attention to my computer than to her. She's deleted more chapters, PM's, and e-mails than I care to count and I'm just lucky I was able to retrieve everything before the losses became permanent. _

_On the flip side, her demands for attention made it a right pain to get any work done and I was unable to finish the next chapter of Twice Blessed Shinobi as a result; so this will be the only chapter today. It will also be the last chapter I post on this story for quite a while since Chapter Eight is in the process of being rewritten and the final two chapters of this story (Chaps 9 &amp; 10) aren't even written yet. Nor have I done much beyond plot out the outlines for the sequel. Whether I post the sequel as part of this story or as a separate story hasn't been decided yet either. _

_Anyway, I'd better get this up before the kitty wakes up and blitzes my note on me. Be sure to keep an eye on my author's page for my progress on this story as well as my other WIPs and for future update dates! ~ Jenn_


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